Shollei insists her work was above board. CFM.
NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 21 – Former Chief Registrar of the Judiciary Gladys Boss Shollei has spoken out for the first time since her dismissal on Friday, saying her sacking was premeditated by the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) members.
Shollei also says the sacking was unprocedural, claiming she was never given a chance to defend herself.
“The information in the media that I appeared before the commission and defended myself is not true. We never reached that stage because I raised various procedural matters,” she told a news conference on Monday.
She accused the JSC of open bias, “because within two hours the commission had a long statement ready for the media about my dismissal.”
The JSC announced on Friday that it had reached a unanimous decision to sack Shollei over a Sh2billion scandal coupled with various other forms of impropriety at the Judiciary.
Shollei denies the allegations, instead accuses the JSC of declining to bring in expertise from government institutions to probe her.
“None of the JSC members have experience on financial management matters and only one of them has worked in the public service,” she said.
She told journalists that she remains willing and open to be investigated for the public to know the truth.
“I personally welcomed the probe in the interest of transparency, I asked for Public Procurement Oversight Authority (PPOA), Ethics and Anti- Corruption Commission (EACC) and the Internal Auditor General to be engaged in the process as these are the government institutions designated to check financial and procurement management in government but the JSC was not interested,” she said.
In a statement issued soon after her dismissal, the JSC had indicated that Shollei was well aware of all allegations facing her and had in fact admitted to some.
But Shollei insists she did not admit any of the allegations.
She says contrary to the commission, no money was lost and there has not been any corrupt dealings at her former office.
She says that the administrative team which she headed was only implementing programmes under the Judiciary transformation framework.
“When you rent a building there is no loss, especially if it was done through an open tender process and within market rates,” she said.
She further stated, “Out of the approximately 20 leases only three were privately-owned, the remaining are leased from Agriculture Finance Corporation (AFC) – a government entity, the money moving from one government account to another cannot lead to corruption.”
Shollei told journalists she appeared before the JSC on Friday morning and sought an adjournment of the proceedings to allow her prepare her defense to the myriad of allegations, but the JSC chaired by Chief Justice Willy Mutunga declined.
She also accused JSC of infringing on her rights to give her reasonable time and resources to prepare her defense to ensure the process is impartial.
“I have several options to challenge the decision, and I am confident because the Judiciary is not the Chief Justice and the Chief Justice is not the Judiciary,” she said.
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