Lawyer files ouster petition against Supreme Court judge Ndungu

Former Law Society of Kenya chief executive officer, Apollo Mboya, has filed a petition before the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) seeking the removal of Supreme Court Judge, Njoki Ndung’u, over claims of breach of oath of office, gross misconduct and misbehaviour.

According to the petition filed on Friday, September 29, Mboya based his case on the August 8 presidential election petition filed by NASA leader, Raila Odinga, and the full judgment of the seven Supreme Court judges on September 20 on why they nullified President Uhuru Kenyatta’s win.

The highest court in Kenya nullified the presidential results of the August election after four of the six sitting judges ruled in favour of the petitioner’s claims after faulting electoral commission’s handling of the results transmission. Justices Ndung’u and Jacktone Ojwang’, however, dissented, ruling the court ought to have ordered a vote recount.

The former LSK CEO now says that Justice Ndung’u is dishonest and misled the country when she accused other judges of not going through all the disputed forms and evidence before making their ruling.

According to Mboya, the judges had only two days, August 28 and 29, to examine all the disputed forms before making a ruling on September 1, insisting that “it was not humanly possible for Ndung’u to achieve the fit.

Mboya claims that Justice Ndung’u lacks courtesy and civility towards fellow judges and bad judicial temperament.

Mboya says that while delivering her detailed dissenting judgment, she contravened Article 75 of the Constitution which requires a state officer to behave in manner that avoids any conflict between personal interests and public duties, compromising any public or official interest in favour of personal interest or demeaning the office the officer holds.

Further, Mboya argues that Justice Ndung’u consequently directed lower courts to disobey the Supreme Court’s verdict when she stated that “in the meantime, lower courts are not without an option. The decision by the majority is one given in a presidential election and which does not usurp the jurisdiction of the lower courts in electoral disputes.”

These actions, Mboya says, are incompatible with the status of a judge of a Supreme Court of Kenya.