PH
Nairobi – The President will not form a tribunal to remove Justice Philip Tunoi until an appeal on his retirement is determined, State House has said.
Chief of Staff Joseph Kinyua said in a letter as quoted by The Star to Chief Justice Willy Mutunga that a petition by a JSC team will be processed once an outcome is delivered.
The Judicial Service Commission found that Tunoi has a case to answer and recommended that he faces a tribunal.
This concerns claims he received a KES 200 million to help deliver a favourable judgement in a petition against Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero in August 2014. Tunoi and Kidero have denied the claims.
Kinyua said in the letter Mutunga received on Monday: “At this particular moment in time when the appeal is still pending and where the status of the judge is subject to judicial consideration, implementing the JSC recommendation would create constitutional crisis.”
Capital News also reports that he noted that Tunoi was declared as having retired from office upon attaining age 70, but that the Court of Appeal may rule either in favour or against the decision.
Tunoi and his High Court counterpart David Onyancha moved to the Appellate Court to challenge the judgement of a lower court agreeing with the JSC that they retire at age 70.
On February 18, Tunoi offered to resign, rather than face the Special Judicial Service Committee. He judge met Mutunga and gave an undertaking to quit, if the committee cleared him.
But the JSC rejected the offer, and established the committee cited gross misconduct and recommended that President Uhuru Kenyatta form a tribunal to investigate him.
