Shollei was sacked last month following a two month standoff with JSC/FILE
The embattled former Chief Registrar of the Judiciary wants her job back and she moved to the High Court on Friday morning to contest her removal from office.
Under a certificate of urgency, Shollei said that she wants her case to be heard in public so that the truth can come out arguing that she was unfairly dismissed on October 18.
“Ancillary to the petition, we filed an application seeking interim and conservatory orders. The trial Judge certified the application urgent and ordered that it be served today and heard on Monday November 4,” she said through her lawyer Donald Kipkorir.
Shollei also argues that the Judicial Service Act is illegal and must be amended as it violates certain principles of the Constitution.
Prior to her sacking Shollei had argued that she was not answerable to the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) but to the National Assembly, the National Treasury, Auditor General, the Public Procurement Oversight Authority and the Ethics and Anti Corruption Commission.
She explained that even though the JSC insisted on probing her itself, she never got a fair hearing after she was denied a chance to call her own witnesses and defend herself.
“On October 18, 2013, the petitioner applied for adjournment to enable her to prepare her defence and to call witnesses. The application was refused and the petitioner excused herself from the proceedings to enable her go to Court,” read the application.
Shollei maintained that seven of her rights had been violated by the JSC including the right to a fair trial, the right to a public hearing, her right to the presumption of innocence and her right to be heard by an impartial tribunal.
Other rights which she says were violated were the right to due process of the law, her right to inherent dignity and her right to information regarding the material used in the proceedings against her.
“The respondent, in proceeding as it did, to remove the petitioner brazenly and egregiously violated the well established principles of jurisdiction, natural justice and bias,” argued Shollei in the application.
The Law Society of Kenya (LSK) has at the same time accused the JSC of mishandling the entire saga and using it to settle personal issues against Shollei.
Shollei had accused some commissioners including advocate Ahmednassir Abdullahi of bullying her so as to get personal favours granted.
The other two are Commissioners Emily Ominde and Mohammed Warsame.
“The three Commissioners told me to my face that I will pay for any refusal to accede to their demands,” she stated in an earlier application.
Chief Justice Willy Mutunga has also had his name dragged into the murk after Shollei accused him and five other judicial staff of starting a war against her so that she can lose her job.
At the time of sacking Shollei, Mutunga said that the verdict had been reached by the JSC after two months of investigations into allegations of financial impropriety.
“It is the unanimous decision of the commission that the Chief Registrar of Judiciary is hereby removed from office with immediate effect,” he stated at the time.
Shollei was sacked on grounds of incompetence, misbehaviour, violation of prescribed code of conduct for judicial officers, violation of Chapter 6 and Article 32 of the Constitution of Kenya and insubordination.
About The Author
