DEPUTY CHIEF JUSTICE FILES CASE TO BAR KIBAKI'S TRIBUNAL

By NATION TEAM
Posted  Thursday, January 26  2012 at  12:53

Suspended Deputy Chief Justice Nancy Baraza on Thursday filed a case seeking to stop the tribunal appointed by President Kibaki from investigating her conduct.

President Kibaki suspended Ms Baraza on Wednesday and appointed a tribunal chaired by former Tanzanian Chief Justice Augustino Stephen Lawrence Ramdhan to investigate onto her alleged misconduct.

Ms Baraza is accused of assaulting and threatening to shoot Ms Rebecca Kerubo, a guard at the Village Market shopping mall, on New Year's eve.

The suspension got a further dramatic twist after a prisoner at the Malindi GK Prison also filed a case against the decision of the JSC to petition President Kibaki to form the tribunal.

Emmanuel Boki Kibagendi filed the case at the High Court in Malindi challenging the decision by JSC to petition the President to suspend the embattled Deputy Chief Justice and appoint a tribunal to investigate her.

Mr Kibagendi filed the case under a certificate of urgency but there was no judge to hear. Malindi Resident Judge Christine Meoli was said to be on vacation.

The case could be heard in Mombasa next week.

Mr Kibagendi cites five grounds in his case in which he says the findings of the sub-committee appointed by the JSC were arbitrary, unlawful, and unconstitutional and that the execution of the same would amount to unlawful and unconstitutional punishment in breach of five specific articles of the constitution.

The prisoner faults the JSC for adopting a report by its sub-committee, saying it relied on hearsay and that it failed to consider various articles and sections of the constitution.

Mr Kibagendi, who is not represented, said he was filing the petition under article 22 (10)(a)(b) of the constitution and said the matter should be heard urgently and on priority basis since the JSC ruling and the intended petition to the President “will and shall be arbitrary, illegal and unlawful”.

He asked the court to take note that the findings of the subcommittee appointed to interrogate the allegations against Ms Baraza were driven and based on personal relations and pose a conflict of interest in the management of justice and not facts.