High Court sets hearing date for Judge Kantai’s suit against JSC
The High Court in Nairobi has ordered that a petition filed by Court of Appeal judge Sankale ole Kantai seeking to bar the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) from hearing two petitions seeking to remove him from office be heard on October 3, 2024.
When the matter came before Justice Chacha Mwita on Monday, May 13, 2024, he fixed the hearing date after the parties, including Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah, the late Tob Cohen’s sister Gabriel Hannah Van Straten, Sarah Wairimu Cohen, the JSC, Director of Criminal Investigations, and Director of Public Prosecution, confirmed they had filed their responses to the lawsuit by Judge Kantai.
Written submissions
“All the parties file written submissions within 14 days that are not exceeding 10 pages before highlighting on October 3, 2024,” Judge Mwita directed.
Justice Kantai, through Lawyer Peter Wanyama, filed the petition in court challenging the decision to have JSC stopped from acting on Senator Omtatah and Straten’s complaints. The two had approached the JSC two years ago seeking to have the senior judge removed from office for alleged gross misconduct and alleged involvement in Businessman Tob Cohen’s murder.
The two petitions relate to another case filed by the judge against the DCI and the DPP for attempting to prosecute him.
Kantai claimed the petitions stemmed from the DPP’s decision not to prefer charges against him concerning Cohen’s death. His lawyer, Wanyama, argued that the petitions are strikingly similar to a reply filed by a DCI senior officer, John Gachomo, in a separate case he filed before the High Court seeking to block DCI from arresting or charging him.
“I am appreciably apprehensive that the petitions filed at the Judicial Service Commission are solely based on the replying affidavit of John Gachomo sworn on September 20, 2021. They are a collateral attack over the decision of the Director Public Prosecution (DPP) not to charge me as aforesaid,” Justice Kantai argued.
The judge moved to court in December 2021, seeking to bar his appearance before the commission pending the determination of another matter he filed in court on the same issue. He sued the Police Inspector General and DCI.
In November 2021, the JSC wrote to Justice Kantai, asking him to appear before the panel to answer allegations made by the petitioners against him.
On November 12, 2021, the JSC summoned Kantai to appear before it in relation to the two petitions.
However, on December 1, 2021, the judge wrote to JSC, requesting it not to consider his removal from office based on mere allegations that he was involved in the Cohen murder
Immediately after filing the case, the High Court restrained the JSC from considering and making any decision on the petitions filed by Omtatah and Van Straten pending the hearing and determination of the petition by Judge Kantai.
JSC
On its side, JSC has urged the High Court to dismiss a case by Appellate Court Judge Kantai to stop hearing of two petitions seeking his removal from office.
The commission in its reply to Justice Kantai’s case argues that he had jumped the gun as it is yet to determine whether it will allow his last year’s request to suspend the hearing of the petitions.
JSC’s lawyer, Charles Kanjama, argued that removal proceedings are independent from either civil or criminal cases and can proceed concurrently.
“The respondent is also concerned that the case is violating the doctrine of exhaustion,” JSC says in its court papers.
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