Justice Isaac Lenaola has equated the fight to remove all seven judges of the Supreme Court to “decimating a whole arm of government,” in a renewed fight against petitions seeking the ouster of the Apex Court.
Lenaola, who is among the seven judges fighting to keep their jobs, became the first judge to publicly comment on the petitions seeking their ouster on Friday.
In a fiery response while engaging law students at the University of Embu Moot Court, Lenaola said he is willing to go home if a case against him is proven. “I have no problem going home if it is proven I am worthless, but it must be on serious grounds... It cannot be games on social media,” said Lenaola.
According to him, the ousting of Supreme Court judges must be individual, not collective. He argues that each judge takes and signs their oaths as individuals, not as a collective. He insists that anyone intending to remove the justices must prove wrongful conduct from each judge.
“This conduct must be individual. When you take your oath of office, you don’t take it together. You take it as yourself, and you sign the oath as yourself. When you reach the oath, I signed the code of conduct as myself. I didn’t sign with Justice Ouko or the Chief Justice,” he asserted.
He added, “We are saying, if you want to remove judges from the Supreme Court, begin by proving your claim against each judge.” He insists the ouster must be on very serious grounds and not “games on social media.”
He told the students, “The removal of a Supreme Court judge in a country is decimating a whole arm of government. You can’t have a democracy when a whole arm of government is collapsed.”
The judiciary is facing an onslaught from various corners. In January, petitions were filed seeking the removal of Chief Justice Martha Koome and six other Supreme Court judges.
The petitions, submitted by former Cabinet Secretary Raphael Tuju's Dari Limited, former Law Society of Kenya (LSK) President Nelson Havi, and lawyer Christopher Rosana, allege incompetence and misconduct by the judges.
On January 13, Havi filed a petition seeking the removal of CJ Koome and the entire seven-judge bench of the Supreme Court. This includes Koome, her deputy Philomena Mwilu, and justices Mohamed Ibrahim, Smokin Wanjala, Njoki Ndung’u, Isaac Lenaola, and William Ouko.
The controversy began when the Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision in January 2024 to ban Senior Counsel Ahmednasir Abdullahi and all lawyers affiliated with his firm from appearing before the court, citing concerns over their conduct. This decision prompted the aforementioned petitions, which called for the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) to recommend the judges' removal from office.
In response, Chief Justice Koome and the implicated judges sought legal recourse to halt the JSC proceedings. On February 20, the High Court issued a temporary order stopping the JSC from proceeding with the petitions pending the hearing and determination of a judicial review case filed by Pariken Ole Esho.
The petitioner argued that the JSC lacked clear procedural guidelines for handling complaints against judges, leading to potentially arbitrary actions.
All seven judges have filed petitions seeking to stop JSC from hearing the petitions for their removal.
