KRN NEWS
High Court gives President Uhuru Kenyatta 14 days ultimatum to appoint judges
High court judges directed President Uhuru Kenyatta to appoint judges who he declined to appoint in June.
The ruling led by a three-judge bench gave the President a 14-days notice to appoint Justices Aggrey Muchelule, George Odunga, Weldon Korir, and Joel Ngugi, to serve in the Appellate Court.
“Upon the lapse of the 14 days, without Uhuru having made the appointment it shall be presumed that his power to make them has expired and his office becomes functus so far as the appointments are concerned and the six nominees shall be deemed duly appointed effective from the date of default as Judges of superior courts for which they were recommended,” the three high court judges ruled.
The six judges rejected by President Uhuru Kenyatta were part of the 40 judges who were cleared by the Judicial Service Commission for promotion.
At the time of confirmation, President Uhuru Kenyatta approved the promotion of 34 court judges and declined to promote the six.
President Uhuru later confirmed that he had received damning revelations from the National Intelligent Service on the six judges.
In July, Justice Aggrey Muchelule was arrested by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations on claims that he was implicated in a corruption scandal.
“They were arrested by the Battery of waiting police officers. They driven back to the chambers of Justice Muchelule and were told that there has been an exchange of money and that money was within his (Muchelule’s chambers).
“A search was conducted. Not even a coin was found within the chambers of Muchelule,” stated lawyer Danstan Omar.
The judges were also part of the landmark ruling that nullified the much-hyped Building Bridges Initiative.
The initiative was instigated by President Uhuru Kenyatta and his handshake partner Raila Odinga.
“A declaration is hereby made that the president does not have authority under the constitution to initiate changes to the constitution and that a constitutional amendment can only be initiated by parliament, through a parliamentary initiative under article 256 or through a popular initiative,” the high court judges said the in judgment.
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High Court gives President Uhuru Kenyatta 14 days ultimatum to appoint judges.
