2 Supreme Court judges slapped with 12-hour ultimatum

Supreme Court Justices Isaac Lenaola and Philomena Mwilu have until close of business today to vacate office, or be ejected, a group of activists has threatened.

The lobby group is set for a mega protest outside the Supreme Court on Tuesday if the duo will not have vacated office by end of today, after they allegedly sided with the Opposition in their ruling on the presidential petition.

READ: Itumbi now lands in hot soup

Through a letter, the Civil Society Development Group wants the two judges barred from undertaking any business in the apex court until a petition filed at the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) for their removal is heard and determined.

In a letter issued to the Inspector General of police Joseph Boinnet, the civil society group wants to be granted security to hold protests outside the Supreme Court against the two judges.

“We shall from Tuesday 26 September 2017 , assemble, demonstrate, picket and continuously petition against the two accused judges of the Supreme Court Building, Nairobi, until those two leave office to pave way for investigations and determination of the petition by the Judicial Service Commission,” they said in the letter.

The petition for the removal of the two judges was filed at JSC by a Mombasa resident Derrick Ngumu on September 18, sparking political disquiet from the Raila Odinga Nasa camp.

Serial meetings

In detailed the petition in which Mr Ngumu even provided purported call logs, the petitioner argued that the two judges had meetings with NASA lawyers James Orengo and Amos Wako.

The move, he argued, led to the nullification of results of the presidential election held on August 8, “without a proper reason”.

The petition accuses the two judges of gross misconduct with an evidence of phone records and having met the NASA lawyers outside the court room during the hearing of the petition.

The damning petitions are detailed with the time of calls, phone call durations and locations of the calls in the time the court was handling the Presidential petition.

However Justice Lenaola has launched an offensive of his own and through his advocate Donald Kipkorir has formally written to Safaricom to explain to him how his private call records could have been accessed by one Ngumu who is seeking his removal from office.

Meanwhile, Justice Lenaola has threatened to sue State House Director of Digital Communications Dennis Itumbi for defamation. Mr Itumbi allegedly defamed the judge, by creating a Twitter post carrying inflammatory remarks about the Supreme Court Judges. Unmoved Itumbi has dared the Judge to lodge a case against him.