Reprieve for Judge Martin Muya as Supreme Court overturns his removal from office
Reprieve to Justice Martin Muya after the Supreme Court set aside the tribunal’s finding that had recommended his removal from office.
In a ruling delivered today in Nairobi, the five-bench judges overturned the tribunal’s recommendation to remove the judge from office for gross misconduct, claiming that the threshold had not been met.
The judges on the bench were Justices Mohamed Ibrahim, Smokin Wanjala, Njoki Ndung’u, Isaac Lenaola, and William Ouko.
The seven-member tribunal claimed that the panel did not receive enough evidence to support the claims levelled against Justice Muya.
As a result, they accepted the views of the judges’ lawyer, Phillip Nyachoti, that the claims brought before the panel were unproven.
“It is not every delay that would attract punishment. Only inordinate and inexcusable delays are discouraged,” the bench stated while dismissing claims that the judge unduly delayed a reasoned judgement of a matter at the centre of the dispute.
The appeal emerged from a Sh76 million loan dispute between a company and NIC Bank, after 14 of the owner’s lorries were impounded for non-payment.
After hearing the application on April 5, 2017, Muya, a High Court judge, rendered a judgement at the Bomet High Court on May 30, 2017.
