Nairobi High Court Judge Nixon Sifuna has directed all lawyers to give the court a professional undertaking to stopping their clients from trying to meet him in a bid to influence rulings.
According to Sifuna, several people had tried to reach the courts using brokers, politicians, and even musicians.
During a virtual session on Thursday, Sifuna urged lawyers to tell their clients to sit back and let the lawyers do the representation for them.
"Each one of you should advise your client to sit back and watch you representing them, if they wanted to do the cases themselves they could have done so, pass this message to your clients," Sifuna implored.
The judge further claimed that some clients even use lawyers to try and lure judges into giving biased verdicts.
Sifuna was forced to intervene due to the surge in manupilation attempts in the court.
“Advise them to leave the court, the court will decide according to their representation,” the judge said.
The judge expressed concerns over the high number of cases he had received concerning Judges and Magistrates being compromised.
While responding to the allegations raised by the judge, one of the lawyers noted that they were not aware of the allegations made but vowed to follow the orders.
Nixon Sifuna was appointed as high court judge on December 5, 2022, his swearing-in ceremony was conducted at the State House in Nairobi and witnessed by President William Samoei Ruto.
“My appointment was a culmination of almost 30 years of sustained activism and public interest litigation in human rights and environmental protection.
It is an honor, as was ELAW's Eldoret visit and support in 2001 when I was handling the famous forest case which became a landmark environmental public interest case. Long live ELAW and my sincere gratitude to you all,” Sifuna noted then.
