Ulemavu Initiative wants High Court judge Anthony Mrima removed from office on grounds of incompetence, bias and gross misconduct.
The initiative’s leader, Michael Makarina wants the Judicial Service Commission to remove Justice Mrima over his decision to convict the Director of Criminal Investigations George Kinoti over businessman Jimmy Wanjigi’s firearms saga.
Through lawyer Danstan Omari, the group accuses the judge of going against the principles of judicial independence, conduct, rule of law and constitutionalism as it smacks deliberate misconduct or incompetency.
“We want the Judicial Service Commission to determine the actions of Justice Mrima amounted to incompetence, corrupt, bias and gross misconduct and breach of Judicial Code of Conduct and Ethics and oath of office and consequent to this determination initiate the necessary procedures for his removal from office.
Makarina also wants Justice Mrima to be investigated to ascertain any benefit he may have received for taking a deliberate legal misdirection.
He further accuses the judge of refusing to appreciate the material evidence presented before him as proof that the conviction and sentence against DCI Kinoti was erroneous, baseless, worse, unmerited and unsupported by any tangible proof or evidence
He goes on to add that it is palpable that the judge has been acting with malafide, morbid and ill will to humiliate Kinoti either through his convenient, misreading, misapplying and misunderstanding of contempt of court proceedings in a manner that render picayune of import of Director’s rights to a fair trial and right to a fair hearing or the court’s show of incompetency that jeopardize the rights of DCI Kinoti.
“The intimation that the Inspector General was to bring Kinoti to court to answer to the charge of contempt long after DCI Kinoti had been sentenced is baffling and a demonstration of the court’s inability to appreciate that the invitation is belated and obviously reverse of the process and procedures as they are understood in law and in practice,” states Makarina.