• Petitioners claimed conflict of interest after Obado reportedly tarmacked road to Ojwang's Migori home. The judge told no one.
• A tribunal was set up to consider his removal over alleged misconduct impropriety and breaching the Judicial Code of Conduct.
The tribunal probing the conduct of suspended Supreme Court Judge J.B. Ojwang will visit his rural Migori home this week.
Petitioners claim he sat on a bench hearing a Migori county case but did not disclose that Governor Okoth Obado had tarmacked a road to his home.
On Monday Ojwang' requested a closed hearing without media coverage.
The seven-member tribunal lead by Appeal Court judge Alnashir Visram will meet people from the county government and surveyors during the site visit.
The tribunal conducted its pre-trial hearing and agreed to begin taking evidence on July 15.
Other members of the tribunal are Justice (Rtd) Festus Azangalala, Ambrose Weda, Andrew Bahati Mwamuye, Lucy Kambuni, Sylvia Wanjiku Muchiri and Amina Abdalla.
It is understood that the judge will not call witnesses whereas his accusers will call 15 witnesses.
Judge Ojwang was suspended after President Uhuru Kenyatta formed a tribunal following recommendations by the Judicial Service Commission.
The decision by the JSC was reached mainly because, in one of the complaints against the judge, there were sufficient grounds to warrant further investigations.
"Upon presentation of the report by the [JSC] committee, the full commission deliberated on the same at great length and found that the petition had disclosed sufficient grounds to warrant a recommendation to the President to set up a tribunal for removal of Justice Jacktone Ojwang, and accordingly adopted it,” CJ David Maraga had said.
The petition that landed Ojwang in trouble was filed by Nelson Onyango and eight others. They accused him of misconduct, impropriety, conflict of interest and breach of the judicial code of conduct.
They complained that the judge sat on a bench of Supreme Court judges in a case that involved Migori county, yet he was closely associated with Governor Obado.
The nine claimed Obado tarmacked a road leading to the judge’s rural home.
In their view, Ojwang should have informed the court and other parties of his association with the county chief but failed to do so until they protested.