NAIROBI Kenya, Oct 24 – The Justice Ogola-led bench has declined a bid by impeached Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua’s lawyers to expunge misleading claims in an affidavit supporting their recusal application.
This is after lawyer Ndegwa Njiru claimed that Justice Anthony Mrima was a close associate to the Deputy President-elect Kithure Kindiki and that Lady Justice Mugambi was Kithure Kindiki’s LLM student at Moi University.
“Of course the application has been made and the responses are there, we decline the invitation to expunge the paragraphs, they will remain as part of the record,” Justice Ogola said.
In the affidavit, the petitioners further claimed that Justice Eric Ogola’s wife holds a position at the Water Towers Agency, an appointment that was done by Soipan Tuya on behalf of the Presidency and that President William Ruto who made the appointment is an interested party in this case.
“One of the issues that was before the impeachment was that the DP indicated that Kenya is a shareholding country. It is my client’s submission that Justice Eric Ogola’s wife may have been a beneficiary of that shareholding,” Ndegwa said.
Also, they claimed that there is a very close relationship between Justice Mrima and the Senate Speaker Amason Kingi that ought to have been disclosed and it wasn’t.
The petitioners were therefore of the view that it would not be proper for the judge to proceed in this matter.
The three-judge bench is also hearing another application seeking their recusal from cases touching on the impeachment process of Rigathi Gachagua.
Before that, the bench will first handle procedural issues of consolidation as cases touching on the impeachment have reached 30.
This comes as the three-judge bench Wednesday rejected Rigathi Gachagua’s application contesting Deputy Chief Justice Philomena Mwilu’s authority to constitute it.
Justices Eric Ogola, Anthony Mrima and Dr Freda Mugambi dismissed the application with costs after faulting lawyers representing the ousted Deputy President for “playing to the gallery”.
“It is therefore our finding that the constitutional function of the CJ to assign benches, being an administrative function, can be performed by the DCJ when the CJ, for good reason, is unable to perform,” the bench held.
The Justice Ogola-led bench also dismissed arguments that it convened unconventionally on Saturday to invite parties for an inter-party hearing on Tuesday.
“We hold that the accusations made by the applicant against this bench are entirely without merit,” the judges affirmed.
Gachagua launched the application contesting Mwilu’s role in empaneling the bench when the court convened an inter-parties hearing, scuttling proceedings intended to consider an application for review of orders halting the swearing in of Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki as Deputy President.
