Chief Justice Koome Faces Ouster in Explosive Scandal Over Biased Judge Picks!

Chief Justice Martha Koome is embroiled in fresh controversy after lawyer Nelson Havi filed a complaint with the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) seeking her removal from office over alleged misconduct in the assignment of judges to hear a case involving herself and other Supreme Court justices.

The complaint, filed last Friday, accuses Koome of improperly selecting High Court judges with relatively limited experience to determine a case in which she is personally involved as a petitioner against the JSC.

According to Havi, a former president of the Law Society of Kenya, the Chief Justice breached judicial protocol by assigning Justices Lawrence Mugambi and Bahati Mwamuye to an expanded three-judge bench tasked with hearing the case.

Both judges were appointed to the High Court relatively recently in 2022 and 2024 respectively raising questions about their appointment to such a complex constitutional matter.

“The gravity and weight of the claim in the petitions by judges of the Supreme Court required an expanded bench of experienced five or seven judges of diverse philosophies and manifesting the face of Kenya, not to forget gender balance,” Havi stated in his 17-page affidavit.

Lawyer Nelson Havi.

Havi further alleged that Justice Koome should have delegated the duty of selecting judges for the case given her direct involvement as a party in the litigation, citing precedent set by former Chief Justice David Maraga who delegated similar responsibilities when faced with a comparable situation in 2021.

The underlying case represents an extraordinary development in Kenya’s judicial history the entire seven-judge bench of the Supreme Court, including the Chief Justice herself, moved to court in February to challenge potential disciplinary proceedings initiated by the JSC.

These proceedings stem from complaints filed last year by Havi and others regarding the Supreme Court’s controversial decision to ban prominent lawyer Ahmednasir Abdullahi and advocates from his law firm from appearing before the apex court.

In her petition to the High Court, Justice Koome has argued that the potential removal of the entire Supreme Court bench could precipitate a constitutional crisis in Kenya.

In his complaint, Havi also raised concerns about potential ethnic bias, noting that Justice Koome assigned Justice Mugambi to hear the matter despite both being from the same ethnic group and county.

Havi drew parallels to the case of Derek Schofield, a former Kenyan High Court judge who was dismissed as Chief Justice of Gibraltar in the United Kingdom for allegedly instituting judicial review proceedings that he himself presided over.

“The conduct of Ms. Koome is similar in all aspects to that of Justice Schofield before her,” Havi asserted, adding that the High Court lacks jurisdiction to “intervene or inquire into proprietary of hiring or removal of a Chief Justice and Deputy Chief Justice.”

The JSC is now expected to consider and make a determination on Havi’s complaint.

If found to have merit, it could potentially lead to formal proceedings for the removal of the Chief Justice under Article 168 of the Kenyan Constitution.

This development comes as the latest twist in an ongoing power struggle between the JSC and the Supreme Court that has created significant tension within Kenya’s judicial system over the past several months.