JSC Delivers Verdict on Judge Tunoi's Sh200 Million Scandal

Special Committee of the Judiciary Service Commission (JSC) has finally released its recommendation after probing bribery allegations facing Supreme Court Judge Justice Philip Tunoi.

The Margaret Kobia-led team announced that Justice Tunoi was culpable in the Sh200 Million bribery claims involving Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero.

“The Commission is satisfied that from the totality of the material and information presented before it there was inappropriate interaction and communication between the Hon. Mr Justice Phillip K. Tunoi and agents of a litigant in a matter pending before the Supreme Court.” the report read in part.

The probe team delivered their report to Chief Justice Willy Mutunga on Friday which directed President Uhuru Kenyatta to form a tribunal to investigate the matter further.

The claims first came up in a report by NTV which indicated that Kidero allegedly granted Justice Tunoi, a Sh200 Million bribe to rule in his favour during an election petition by then Nairobi gubernatorial seat aspirant Ferdinand Waititu.

Last week CJ Willy Mutunga weighed in on the matter saying he had received an affidavit on the corruption allegations against Judge Tunoi. A six-member special JSC committee was then set up to investigate the claims against Tunoi, which threaten to dent the integrity of the Supreme Court.

However, both Governor Kidero and Justice Tunoi have since dismissed the allegations, citing they have never met personally.

Tunoi claimed that succession wrangles in the Judiciary were a major cause of the bribery allegations against him.

The 72-year-old alleged that there were individuals plotting his exit from the Supreme court, so they could ascend to become judges in the highest court on the land.

Kidero dismissed the allegations saying that political cartels were out to get rid of him as the Nairobi Governor. 

"The Sh200 million bribery claim against Justice Philip Tunoi is a political scheme against me by cartels strategizing for the 2017 elections" Kidero said.

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