As Kenyans wait patiently for the next Chief Justice (CJ), the Judiciary Service Commission (JSC) on Monday set the stage for the process and Justice Said Juma Chitembwe was first to be interviewed for the post.
Interviews to search for the country’s next president of the Supreme Court entered their second day on April 13.
Law scholar professor Patricia Mbote sat before the panel of interviewers and Acting Chief Justice Philomena Mwilu was among the panel.
Professor Mbote was asked for her restlessness when she was not able to get the position of a Dean In her response to the panel, Prof. Mbote blamed her action of being restless due to her age and being ‘young’.
“I was young and restless. I was in my 40s,” said Prof. Mbote.
During her tenure, she explained that a section of students did not take her authority seriously to an extent of setting up a bar outside her office.
“The goons decided to set up a bar behind my office and they were having fun with loud music – dombolo music,” she narrated.
Among her achievement in law, Prof. Mbote served as the Director of Research and Policy Outreach and Acting Executive Director at the African Centre for Technology Studies, Nairobi.
She was a member of the Committee of Eminent Persons appointed by His Excellency the President of Kenya in February 2006 to advise the government on the way forward for the stalled constitution review process.
Yet on April 12, High Court judge Said Juma Chitembwe was the first candidate to take the podium.
The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) grilled Justice Chitembwe on various issues that included his controversial ruling in a defilement case in 2016 involving a minor and a 20-year-old man.
In 2016, Chitembwe freed a 24-year-old man who was serving a 20-year jail term for defiling a 13-year-old girl on grounds that it was wrong to hand the man the heavy punishment, saying that the child appeared willing to have sex with the defendant.
Nearly 5 years on, Chitembwe stood by this infamous ruling while appearing before the JSC for Kenya’s next CJ.
“You as a judge are saying a defiler should be let free if a child behaves like an adult. I believe i used very polite words and i was picking from what the complainant said. Surely i can smell defilement from very far,” said Chitembwe.
The JSC commissioners also sought to know how Chitembwe would enhance integrity and accountability of the judiciary if he became chief justice.
“Integrity is not something you can say this one has high, it can be lost within a day. There’s no cure where you spray them and there are all people of integrity it is an issue of negotiation.”
Regarding the fragile relations between the executive and judiciary that resulted from failure to appoint 41 judges recommended by the Judiciary, Chitembwe blamed the situation partly on the JSC, adding that he would initiate talks to have the eligible judges sworn in within his first 100 days as CJ.
“The JSC played a role in having this problem how did you wait for this happen you say judges retire. Why did you not have a system to recruit?
This is my solution if there is no problem with the judges of the labour court I will swear them and move to the court of appeal and see what is the problem. It is something I can say can be handled within my first 100 days.”
The nine individual interview panel is set to continue with the search for Kenya’s next Chief Justice until the April 30, 2021.
