One of the BBI opponents has made an application at the Supreme Court asking three judges to recuse themselves from hearing the appeal.
Isaac Aluochier wants Justices Mohammed Ibrahim, Smokin Wanjala and Njoki Ndung’u to step down from the bench arguing that they will not be impartial.
If the application is allowed, it would leave only four judges instead of the mandatory five judges available to hear the BBI case.
Aluochier says the BBI appeal should be resolved by an impartial bench of judges and the three judges appear not to be impartial in the matter before the court.
He claims that he lodged a petition at the JSC in 2016 for the removal of six judges of the Supreme Court led by former Chief Justice Willy Mutunga and Justices Phillip Tunoi, Jacktone Ojwang, Mohammed Ibrahim, Smokin Wanjala and Njoki Ndung’u for breach of code of conduct and gross misbehaviour.
However, to date, that petition has never been dealt with and three have since left the bench so he feels that the other three will not be impartial in determining the BBI appeal.
He has urged the Judicial Service Commission to fast-track his petition against the judges saying he is even willing to use Alternative Dispute Resolution to settle the matter with the judges that have been pending since 2016.
“The Applicant hereby declares his willingness to resolve the said JSC petition by way of ADR, and expeditiously, in the interests of justice and of the public,” he says.
Edited by D Tarus