A petitioner has written to the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) seeking the removal of High Court judge, Anthony Mrima. Mrima is the judge that issued a four-month-sentence order against the Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) boss, George Kinoti.
In his petition filed through lawyer Dunstan Omari, Michael Mutembei accused the judge of gross misconduct and incompetence while making the ruling between the DCI boss and tycoon Jimi Wanjigi.
Mutembei alleged that the judge demonstrated a lack of impartiality in dealing with the case and probed why the judge had singled out Kinoti out of the three respondents or parties that Wanjigi had sued.
"This inevitably demonstrates that the accused judge was acting discriminately and out of vengeance and ill will," reads court documents.
He now wants the court to investigate the conduct of Justice Mrima to ascertain any benefit he may have received for taking a deliberate legal misdirection.
“The Judicial Service Commission be pleased to order the immediate suspension of the Honourable justice Anthony Mrima for his open show of bias, incompetence, corruption, misbehavior and misconduct in the exercise of his judicial functions in Petition no.520 of 2017 between Jimi Wanjigi and another versus Inspector General of Police and 3 others,” reads an excerpt of the court documents.
Mutembei praised the DCI boss, stating he was of an admirable character with a past demonstrative that he has been a courageous public servant that is never afraid to loss his life in service.
"That it is appalling and a clear abuse of the judicial discretion to have witnessed the accused judge run over the Director of Criminal Investigations and to have convicted him to jail for fours months without any other option for the decision of the court...trivializes the role Mr.Kinoti has played to bring security and tranquility within the Country."
Mutembei argued the judge ignored the Sentencing Policy Guidelines that the court is bound to follow when passing a sentence to any convict.
On his part, criminal lawyer, Cliff Ombeta, emphasized that the judge ought to have called in Kinoti to court to detail his part of the story.
"His verdict was biased and all others listed as respondents were found guilty but only Kinoti was sentenced," he stated.
