Economy

President has no mandate to handpick CJ, Court rules

cj

Current Chief Justice Willy Mutunga. The appointment of the Chief Justice and Deputy Chief Justice will remain a function of Judicial Service Commission. PHOTO | FILE

The High Court has ruled that the President cannot handpick the Chief Justice (CJ), who is the head of the Judiciary, saying it remains the work of the Judicial Service Commission (JSC).

The unanimous ruling was delivered Thursday by a five-judge bench comprising Justices Richard Mwongo, Mumbi Ngugi, Vincent Odunga, Weldon Korir, and Joseph Onguto.

The court also found that it was illegal for parliament to introduce an amendment on the floor of the House when the same had not been subjected to public participation.

The appointment of the Chief Justice and Deputy Chief Justice will remain a function of JSC.

The National Assembly had made the amendments to the Judicial Service Act in December last year and was shortly assented into law by President Uhuru Kenyatta.

The Law Society of Kenya (LSK) had filed a case in January seeking to overturn the amendments that granted the president power to pick the next Chief Justice.

Current CJ Willy Mutunga is set to leave office in June.

READ: Lawyers seek to overturn Uhuru powers to handpick CJ

The amendments, which has been ruled unconstitutional, would have seen the JSC nominate three candidates for the CJ and Deputy CJ posts with Mr Kenyatta selecting one nominee for each post. The two names would then have been forwarded to parliament for vetting.

With the amendments now ruled null and void, the JSC has the sole discretion to pick a candidate from a pool of applicants who undergo rigorous screening by the body after which the it presents a final candidate to the president.

The Head of State then forwards the name to Parliament for vetting.