The President has suspended Supreme Court judge Philip Tunoi and appointed a tribunal to probe claims that he received a Sh200 million bribe.
The seven-member team formed by President Uhuru Kenyatta to investigate the conduct of the judge will be chaired by Judges and Magistrates Vetting Board chairman Sharad Rao, State House said.
Spokesman Manoah Esipisu said via Twitter on Tuesday that other members are judge Roselyn Korir, retired justice Jonathan Havelock, Judith Guserwa, James Kaberere, Abdirashid Hussein and George Wakukha.
Esipisu noted that Tunoi was suspended with immediate effect over claims he took the bribe to help deliver a favourable ruling on Ferdinand Waititu’s petition against Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero in August 2014.
State House had said on Monday that a tribunal would not be formed pending the determination of Tunoi’s appeal on his retirement.
Chief of Staff Joseph Kinyua said in a letter to Chief Justice Willy Mutunga that a petition by a special Judicial Service Commission team would be processed upon the delivery of an outcome.
On February 18, Tunoi offered to resign , rather than face the committee. The judge met Mutunga and gave an undertaking to quit if the committee cleared him.
But the JSC rejected the offer, and established the committee cited gross misconduct and recommended that President Uhuru Kenyatta form a tribunal to investigate him.
Esipisu had reported that the tribunal had not yet been formed as “crucial documents were missing “.
But the JSC denied the reports saying it delivered the required documents – the transmittal letter, petition and a report of the findings of the “Commission on the Allegations of Bribery Against Tunoi”.
