Justice Sichale vows lifestyle audits, integrity tests in bid for deputy CJ

Court of Appeal judge Fatuma Sichale would implement a raft of measures including lifestyle audits and integrity testing programmes to fight corruption in the Judiciary if appointed the next Deputy Chief Justice.

Justice Sichale, the third applicant to be interviewed by the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) told the panel that she would “crack the whip” on judges and magistrates who failed to deliver on their performance contracts.

“We must come up with a delicate balance between dangling the carrot and the stick if judges and magistrates fail to deliver on their targets and daily returns out of sheer laziness. I am the kind of person who will not shy from telling them to pull up their socks,” she said.

She also proposed roping in court clerks and other support staff in the lifestyle audits. Those found to be guilty, she said, should be publicly prosecuted.

Justice Sichale also suggested the implementation of the transfer policy to ensure judges and magistrates stay at a particular station for not more than three years.

She admitted that politics often comes in the way of fighting corruption recalling her time as director of the now defunct Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission while describing it as one of the corruption watchdog’s best times when it came to asset recovery.

“We were able to recover land that enabled the construction of both the Northern and Southern bypass, Karura Forest land as well as the recovery of Grand Regency Hotel which at the time was considered the second largest recovery from corrupt dealings,” she said.

Appellate judge Hannah Magondi Okwengu, on the other said she would advocate for judicial independence and limiting of cases to be heard by the Supreme Court as the top court on the land.

Justice Okwengu who also worked as an assistant director of the corruption watchdog and helped set up their prosecutions department said if appointed she would promote the continuous training of judges and magistrates.

The position of deputy chief justice fell vacant in June when Deputy Chief Justice Kalpana Rawal and her counterpart Supreme Court judge Philip Tunoi were sent home over the contentious dispute on the retirement age of judges employed before 2010.

The JSC is scheduled to continue its search for deputy chief justice until Thursday when they will break for the weekend.

On Wednesday the panel interviews lawyer Joyce Miguda Majiwa and Justice Lydia Awino Achode in the afternoon.