{State House has remained tight-lipped over the fate of embattled Supreme Court Judge Philip Tunoi as the deadline for appointing a tribunal to investigate accusations of impropriety against him draws to a close.}<\/p>\n
The Judicial Service Commission (JSC), having submitted to President Uhuru Kenyatta a petition for formation of a tribunal on February 9, Article 168 (5) requires the President to appoint the tribunal within 14 days after receiving the resolution.<\/p>\n
The 14 days since JSC submitted the petition end on Tuesday, February 23.<\/p>\n
A former radio broadcaster Geoffrey Kiplagat, in a sworn affidavit, had accused Justice Tunoi of having received a Sh202 million bribe from Nairobi County Governor Dr Evans Kidero to influence the election petition judgment in his favour.<\/p>\n
In recommending the formation of the tribunal, JSC on February 5 said it was \u201csatisfied from the totality of the material and information presented before it that there was inappropriate interaction and communication between the Hon Mr Justice Philip K. Tunoi and agents of a litigant in a matter pending before the Supreme Court.\u201d<\/p>\n
Justice Tunoi has denied the bribery allegations and reiterated his innocence against the \u201cfalse accusations that have been made against him. The judge will appear before the tribunal once it is established,\u201d he said after the JSC recommended his suspension and formation of a tribunal to investigate the accusations.<\/p>\n
Going by the speed with which he formed the Havelock Tribunal to investigate the conduct of former Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commissioners Mumo Matemu and Irene Keino, and another one investigating the conduct of suspended judge Joseph Mutava, lawyers and the public are baffled at President Kenyatta\u2019s lack of speed in acting on the Tunoi petition.<\/p>\n
Last week State House spokesperson Manoah Esipisu said the delay in the appointment of the tribunal was because \u201cthe investigation files were missing\u201d from what the JSC sent over with its recommendation.<\/p>\n
FALSE
\nJSC countered that State House was being insincere. \u201cWe state for the record that the commission sent the following documents to the Head of State on February 9, 2016, which were duly received and signed for at the Office of the President: transmittal letter, petition and report of the findings of the commission on the allegations of bribery against Justice Philip Tunoi,\u201d Dr Naim Bilal, the judiciary\u2019s director, public affairs & communication, said.<\/p>\n
\u201cJSC reiterates that it fully satisfied the provisions of Article 168 (4) of the Constitution on the content and procedure of such a petition to the President. Importantly, this is not the first petition of this nature that the JSC has processed. Further, JSC has neither received any communication from the Head of State on the matter nor a request for additional information,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Lawyer Paul Muite says \u201cEsipisu was talking nonsense when he said there were documents JSC had not forwarded. Evidence for removal is evaluated by the tribunal not the President. Esipisu is therefore wholly wrong in insinuating the president has a role in evaluating the adequacy or otherwise of the evidence in support of the petition by JSC.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Muite\u2019s sentiments have been reiterated by lawyer Haron Ndubi who also holds that the president has no authority to demand to see the evidence.<\/p>\n
Neither Mr Esipisu nor the senior director of public communication at State House Munyori Buku could be reached for a comment.<\/p>\n
Source:Daily Nation:[Time running out for Uhuru to appoint Tunoi tribunal->http:\/\/www.nation.co.ke\/news\/Time-running-out-for-Uhuru-to-appoint-Tunoi-tribunal–\/-\/1056\/3086094\/-\/139jxywz\/-\/index.html]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{State House has remained tight-lipped over the fate of embattled Supreme Court Judge Philip Tunoi as the deadline for appointing a tribunal to investigate accusations of impropriety against him draws to a close.} The Judicial Service Commission (JSC), having submitted to President Uhuru Kenyatta a petition for formation of a tribunal on February 9, Article […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2000072339,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[99],"byline":[2461],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-23382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-greatlakesnews","byline-daily-nation"],"bylines":[{"id":2461,"name":"Daily Nation","slug":"daily-nation","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2461,"name":"Daily Nation","slug":"daily-nation","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":{"id":2000072339,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton23382.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton23382.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton23382.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton23382.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton23382.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton23382.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23382\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000072339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23382"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=23382"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=23382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}