Why 'Striking' Judges Risk Losing Their Jobs

Three Supreme Court judges have downed their tools protesting a decision by the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) to send home judges who have attained the age of 70 years.

Justice Njoki Ndung’u, Mohammed Ibrahim and Jackton Ojwang’ withdrew their services from the court terming the early retirement decision as illegitimate. This has caused a backlog of cases which were set to be heard by the court.

Meanwhile, Law Society of Kenya CEO Apollo Mboya has presented a list of cases that are pending at the Supreme Court to JSC petitioning it to sack the three 'striking' judges for breaching their oath of office.

Mboya argued that even if Hon. Justice Mohammed, Ojwang and Njoki were to resume duty, they have already irreparably and grossly misconducted themselves and cannot continue serving in the position of judges of the Supreme Court.

The situation has further been worsened by JSC's decision to place Deputy Chief Justice Kalpana Rawal on terminal leave. This leaves the Court with only three judges therefore cannot raise the required quorum to hear a case.

“In light of the current scenario, its impossible to raise a quorum and such a situation will only lead to a backlog of cases and is bound to seriously affect the administration of justice within the Judiciary and the country,” reads the petition.

This comes a month after JSC gave Kalpana Rawal a four-month retirement notice. Rawal filed a case at the High Court asking it to overturn JSC's decision terming it as unconstitutional.