How Justice Ombija landed on opposite side of the Bench

In his ruling, Justice Korir said that Justice Ombija would have escaped the rigorous exercise if he had retired in the first three months of the law requiring judges and magistrates to be vetted took effect.

The judge said in court documents that having made the decision not to continue serving in the Judiciary on March 15, the mandate of the board to vet him ceased.

“Purporting to vet a judge who has retired is not authorised in law,” his lawyer told Justice Weldon Korir. The retired judge accuses the Judges and Magistrates Vetting Board of having a personal vendetta against him by declaring him unfit to serve as a judicial officer despite his resignation.

In a press conference, he claimed the letter sent to him by the board was not dated and was signed by only two out of the nine members of the commission.

This is the second time that Justice Ombija and the vetting board are at loggerheads over his competency to serve as a judicial officer.
In 2012, he was found unfit to hold office but he applied for a review citing bias from the board. He moved to court challenging the vetting board’s authority.

The High Court dismissed his application and required him to present himself before the board for fresh vetting before the end of December last year.

Victory in a case filed at the Court of Appeal before the lapse of the December deadline however secured his continued tenure in Judiciary.
The board then moved to the highest court in the land seeking to have the Appellate decision reversed.

Limited vetting

In mid-March this year, Supreme Court judges Chief Justice Willy Mutunga, Deputy Chief Justice Kalpana Rawal, Mohammed Ibrahim, Jackton Ojwang’, Smokin Wanjala and Njoki Ndung’u allowed the petition and directed that the repeat vetting process be conducted without delay.

The Supreme Court gave guidelines for which the process would be conducted; on a day-to-day basis, until it is concluded by March 31 to ensure that Justice Ombija’s right to a just, prompt and fair hearing was protected.

They also said that the vetting process would only be limited to matters arising up to August 27, 2010.
It was at this time that the judge opted to resign from office rather than face the board afresh.
Justice Ombija is a father of six and was born in Kusomo location in Kisumu.

He undertook a Bachelor’s of law degree from the University of Nairobi in 1976 and graduated in 1979. He also has a Master’s in Public International Law from the same institution.

Justice Ombija was sworn into office in October 2001 by retired president Daniel arap Moi to serve in the High Court along with Justice Lawrence Ouna, retired justice David Onyancha, Justice Jeanne Wanjiku Gacheche and Justice Robert Mugo Mutitu.

Before becoming a High Court judge at the age of 45, Justice Ombija worked as a lawyer for close to 22 years having been admitted to the bar in 1980.

During that time, he worked as a litigation and conveyancing lawyer at his firm Ombija and Company Advocates which later became Ombija, Wasuna and Company advocates.

In previous media interviews, he has described himself as an unshaken man especially when he knows what he is doing is right. But his tenure at the Milimani High Court in Nairobi has been steeped in controversy.

During the search for new judiciary leadership he is among the 12 people who applied for the position of deputy chief justice but did not secure the position.

In 2011, his ruling threw the country into a diplomatic spat with neighbouring Sudan when he ruled that President Omar al Bashir was a persona non grata in Kenya. In an arrest warrant, he ordered then Internal Security minister George Saitoti to arrest the Sudanese leader and hand him over to the International Criminal Court if he ever set foot in Kenya.

Sudan retaliated by kicking out the Kenyan ambassador and recalling their own from Nairobi and gave the government two weeks to reverse the decision.

Sued KCB

Chief Justice Willy Mutunga came to his defence amid criticism saying the Judiciary would not be intimidated by other arms of government.
Justice Ombija was also in the limelight in 2008 when he sued KCB for embarrassment after he tried using his visa card on two separate occasions and failing despite having money in the account.

A year later, the courts compelled the bank to pay the judge Sh2.5 million for damages caused to his social standing.
Justice Ombija ruffled a few feathers in 2012 during the hearing of a case in which former Industrialisation minister Henry Kosgei faced abuse of office charges for allowing cars older than the required legal limit into the country.

He had a heated exchange with the prosecution within the court room and the matter was referred to the Chief Justice.
Even his friends have not been spared the wrath of the no nonsense judge.

In 2009, his longtime friend and now Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya ended up in the corridors of justice after he sued him for removing fittings in a house that he had purchased from him worth Sh13.5 million.

In the case, he argued that the chandeliers, executive toilet covers and other fittings in the Kitisuru bungalow were what gave the ambience that he fell in love with in the first place.

He settled the matter with Mr Oparanya out of court.
In 2013, Justice Ombija sentenced nine prison wardens of King’ong’o Maximum Prison to death following the suspicious deaths of six of the inmates. The wardens appealed the sentence but only five were acquitted of the offences.

He has also handled several public interest cases at the criminal division including that of self-confessed serial killer Philip Onyancha.

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