A judge of the Employment and Labour Relations Court has denied claims he received Sh7 million from embattled Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko to rule in favour of the county chief in a case touching on his impeachment.
In a ruling delivered Wednesday morning, Justice Nzioki Wa Makau said the claims were lies against the court with the intention to subvert the hearing of the notice of motion.
On Tuesday, Nairobi county assembly lawyer Ndegwa Njiru asked the judge to recuse himself from the case accusing him of receiving a bribe from the governor.
“In his submission, Njiru made some laughable allegations that I have been given some Sh7 million by Hon Mike Sonko,” Makau said.
He denied having ever met Sonko in person, saying even their public and private lives have never converged.
“Like many citizens of this nation, I have only seen him on the television,” Makau said.
He said there was no basis for him to disqualify himself from the case.
Makau said he retains and always maintains an open mind as a judicial officer, saying he is not biased against any individual even when they are of the lawyers who made the allegations.
Although the judge declined to recuse himself from the case, he said he will refer the file back to the principal judge to allocate the matter to another judge.
“However, despite my finding that there is no basis for my recusal and because there is no property in a suit before me, I refer the file back to the principal judge to assign the file to any other judge other than myself,” Makau ruled.
The judge said it had been suggested that he will find it difficult to handle the matter due to his personal relationship with Sonko.
“When one looks at the matter through the eyes of a reasonable man, there can be no bias from this court as can be gleaned from by record in the eight-plus years I have served the people Kenya in the Judiciary and the seven years I served as an Anti-Corruption Commission attorney and investigator,” he said.
The court was to hear the notice of motion filed by Sonko challenging his impeachment by the county assembly but the county assembly lawyers instead asked the judge to recuse himself from the matter saying he is biased.
On Tuesday last week, Makau issued temporary orders stopping the county assembly from impeaching Sonko.
Sonko was impeached two days later on Thursday. On the same day, justice James Rika recused himself from the case following a day-long battle in court between lawyers.
Sonko had moved to court to stop his impeachment arguing that it was illegal for the assembly to proceed with the process when there is an order issued in February stopping his removal.
