An activist has petitioned the Judicial Service Commission for the removal of High Court Judge Anthony Mrima over gross misconduct and corruptive practices.
In his petition, Fredrick Bikeri states that the removal of the accused judge ensues from his pronounced judgement in which he barred investigation agencies from drafting, signing or presenting charge in the criminal prosecution.
The judge mandated the Director of Public Prosecutions with the powers to draft and sign charge sheets which caused uproar and confusion in the corridors of justice.
The activist argues that the judgement has caused total disharmony and disarray within the criminal justice system, it’s players and practitioners; altering or delaying the processing of the suspects before criminal courts of justice since it delivery and immediate implementation.
“The upshot of the judgement is fatal to the national security, jurisprudential value, prejudicial to procedure within the criminal law justice system, overlooking separation and segregation of powers and giving rise to unwarranted conflict of interest amongst key players in the justice system,” said Bikeri.
Through lawyer Danstan Omari, the activist argues that upon Mrima’s decision several different charge sheets presented by the office of the DPP before court have been challenged.
He adds that victims of crime alike accused persons are not getting their justice expeditiously as demanded by the constitution of Kenya 2010 given that justice delayed is justice denied.
This is because the findings of the judgement have occasioned the conduct of numerous criminal cases to be delayed and even been thrown out with pending inconsistencies and as a result of legal uncertainty, it has affected the whole criminal justice system in Kenya.
ODPP press statement
The activist adds that the ODPP affirms in a press statement that they never sought the orders as granted by the said judge which makes plain the gross misconduct, ulterior motive and misbehavior extent of the judge at the expense of public interest, rule of law, separation of powers and national security.
“The effects of the judgement and the confusion it has already occasioned has overwhelmingly made it difficult for the maintenance of the law and order rendering the criminal justice system slow, inefficient, unjust, unfair, unreliable and inconsistent with a likely progression towards an anarchic state in relation to criminal justice,” the activist said.
Bikeri claims that judge Mrima failed to consider the effect of the charge sheet document; which trite law indicates that it is an investigative accountable document that ought to be registered in a charge sheet register by police, the mandated drafters by the law.
