A large number of judges and magistrates are over the moon following Chief Justice Martha Koome’s decision to stop the recruitment of High Court and Court of Appeal judges.
Koome’s decision comes after this publication previously reported on how money and corrupt dealings allegedly play out at the JSC during Judges and Magistrates Recruitment process.
In our earlier publication, we reported on how millions exchange hands for the said plum court positions.
Our investigations now show that the last two recruitments of the judges of the High Court was a charade and a mockery of the whole process.
“Corruption, horse trading and abuse of process have characterized the opaque recruitments. For instance, stories are told of how some Commissioners asked their friends to apply and as a normal routine, huge sums of money exchanged hands in the previous process, ” said a source.
According to a prominent judge aware of the matter, those seeking to be Judges are usually handpicked earlier before any recruitment is announced.
” During the previous interviews, we saw some individuals celebrating even before the JSC released the list of successful candidates, this needs to change,” he added.
A city advocate said the rot at the JSC shows that Koome has failed to offer leadership and called for his resignation.
” The CJ needs to resign and allow competent person to take over, this mess is so bad to entertain,” he said.
He also called for auditing of the previous recruitments by the JSC as a way of identifying the rot within the entire system.
Our efforts to reach the CJ and the Registrar of the Judiciary for comment on the matter was not successful as they did not receive our calls by the time of publishing.