Senior Counsel Fred Ngatia has disputed the nomination of Lady Justice Martha Koome to be the next Chief Justice.
Speaking after the Judicial Service Commission (JSC)'s announcement on Tuesday, April 27, Ngatia lamented that he had been rigged out at the last minute.
The senior counsel, whom many predicted would emerge the best, said that powerful individuals pressured a section of JSC commissioners to lower his score.
“Four commissioners from Mt Kenya region reduced my scores yesterday afternoon after they were called by powerful people. Without that intervention, I was far ahead of all the other candidates,” he explained.
Law Society of Kenya (LSK) President Nelson Havi also read mischief in the marks awarded to Ngatia.
Speaking during an interview with Citizen TV’s Waihiga Mwaura, Havi questioned how LSK representative to the JSC, Commissioner Macharia Njeru awarded the senior counsel 42 marks.
“As LSK, we are concerned that our representative could award 42 marks to a distinguished legal practitioner who had applied for CJ. If the guy is the top lawyer, how could he be the bottom candidate for CJ?” he posed.
In 2019, Ngatia was ranked the best lawyer in Kenya by Chambers and Partners, an independent research company operating across 200 jurisdictions giving insight into the world's leading lawyers.
The JSC announced that the decision to nominate Justice Koome was unanimous, which Havi stated could indicate interference.
"It cannot be that JSC, which appears to be under an arm of the government, will deliver to us a CJ. A commission can never reach a unanimous decision,” he criticised.
Despite pressure to disclose how the candidates ranked, the JSC declined to publicise the information.
“Our duty was to select the best candidate and that’s what we have done,” Prof Olive Mugenda who chaired the interviews told the media.
Prof Makau Mutua, who was interviewed for the Chief Justice position in 2016, has already moved to court seeking to compel the commission to make public each candidates' score in line with the constitutional requirement for transparency.
The JSC also indicated that it would continue with interviews to fill the Supreme Court Judge Position on May 3.
