The Judicial Service Commission is still troubled over President Uhuru Kenyatta’s delayed appointment of a senior judge to the commission. The President has not nominated Court of Appeal Judge Mohamed Warsame as a representative of the appellate court holding that he must be vetted by Parliament.
JSC has been having only six instead of 11 members for close to a year causing a standstill between the judiciary and the executive. On Wednesday, Attorney Paul Kihara, former clerk of the National Assembly Patrick Gichohi, former Kenyatta University Vice-Chancellor Pro. Olive Mugenda and former Cabinet Secretary Felix Kosgey were sworn in to join JSC.
The commission is now having 10 members and will serve without the eleventh person because of the pending appointment of Justice Warsame. Chief Justice David Maraga had maintained that he would not administer the oath for the other commissioners pending until President Kenyatta nominated Justice Warsame to JSC.
According to The Standard, JSC deputy chairperson, Mercy Ndeche, raised an alarm over the President’s stance saying that the commission was struggling to serve without all members.
“We have been six, doing the work of 11. We are now 10. Our appeal is that the remaining commissioner is also sworn in. We are not operating at optimum when we have one less commissioner,” remarked Ndeche.
The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) now wants President Uhuru Kenyatta to officially appoint Court of Appeal judge Mohamed Warsame as commissioner to the powerful organ.
Warsame’s appointment has stalled following a battle between the three arms of government concerning whether he should first be vetted by parliament before official appointment.
The JSC members spoke as four new commissioners were sworn in on Thursday, and with the stroke of Chief Justice David Maraga’s pen, the number of commissioners rose from six to 10.
For close to seven months, the commission had conducted its business with the minimum number for a quorum, a situation that left no room for any member to miss a sitting. JSC has been transacting business with six commissioners instead of 11.
The six have been Chief Justice David Maraga, Deputy Chief Justice Philomena Mwilu, Justice Aggrey Muchelule, Law Society of Kenya representatives Tom Ojienda and Mercy Deche and Chief Magistrate Emily Ominde.
“The 11th member has been identified and that is Justice Mohamed Warsame but he is yet to be appointed… Our appeal is that the same be done because we are not able to operate at optimum when we have one member left,” says JSC Vice-Chair Mercy Deche.
The appointments of the Prof. Olive Mugenda, Patrick Gichohi and former CS Felix Koskei and that of Court of Appeal judge Mohamed Warsame to the JSC had been held up for months by the push-and-pull involving the Judiciary, the Legislature and the Executive, nearly paralysing operations of the commission and the Judiciary.
President Kenyatta nominated Prof. Mugenda, Koskei and Gichohi on February 13, 2018 while Court of Appeal judges re-elected Justice Warsame for a second term in March. But their grand match to the Supreme Court buildings failed to materialize as the three arms of government flexed muscles in the battle to control the JSC.