CORRUPTION is still thriving in the Judiciary despite the recent radical surgery done by the Judges and Magistrates board with fresh claims of Justice Joseph L Onguto of Milimani Law Courts receiving Ksh 3,000,000 from a Nairobi lawyer to write a ruling for a case he has never heard since he was sworn in as a judge.
Justice Onguto wrote and signed a ruling in his own handwriting before delivering the same in an open court. The case civil suit 497 of 2012 which is now in ELC division which has been pending for ruling was being heard by Justice Gacheru Nyambura of ELC but to the surprise of senior lawyers and other Judges the ruling was written and delivered by Justice Onguto something which has never happened in the history of judiciary in Kenya.
The plaintiff is now appealing for Justice and wants the Chief Justice Dr.Willy Mutunga, the Judicial Service Commission, Judges and Magistrates vetting board and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission to intervene in the case.
According to lawyers Justice Onguto had no jurisdiction to hear a land matter because of the court of appeal decision in Malindi in criminal appeals numbers 44; 45 and 76 of 2014 delivered in Malindi between Karisa Chengo and two others verses the Republic before Justices Makhandia, Okwengu and Sichale JJA.
The Court of appeal had ruled that no High Court Judge should preside over a matter in a division he/she has not been sworn in to sit. Since civil suit ELC 497/2012 was an ELC matter Justice Onguto was not supposed to rule on the case because he was not sworn in as an ELC division Judge, but lawyers accuse him of taking the bribe and he illegally wrote and delivered a ruling for a matter he has never heard before the court.
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