A High Court judge who awarded former Internal Security minister Chris Murungaru Sh27 million for defamation says he arrived at the figure after legal considerations.
Justice Joseph Sergon on Monday told the Judicial Service Commission he considered the available evidence and the principles establishing liability and quantum. He is seeking promotion to the Court of Appeal.
Former Ethics and Anti-Corruption chief John Githongo was slapped with the amount for defaming Murungaru.
Sergon had ruled that there was no iota of evidence presented by Githongo and his witness linking Murungaru to corrupt practices.
“Therefore the contents of the dossier in the absence of evidence to establish their truthfulness or justification means that the publication is and was defamatory of the plaintiff,” the judge said.
Sergon, who has been on the bench for 18 years, said he took over the case from retired Judge David Onyancha and dismissed claims that he deliberately limited Githongo’s defence hearing.
He dismissed allegations of incompetence, non-professionalism, abuse of office, bias and lack of integrity made against him, saying all the complaints were made by people aggrieved by his decisions.
Chief Justice David Maraga informed Sergon that reservations had been made about how he had handled three murder cases by substituting the charges with manslaughter and then handing down non-custodial sentences to the convicts.
The judge said, “Plea-bargaining had been negotiated and the necessary reports presented to the court. This was part of the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanism at work.”
Earlier, High Court judges Hedwig Ong’udi and Hellen Omondi were interviewed by the 11-member panel chaired by Maraga at the Re-Insurance Plaza JSC headquarters.
Nixon Sifuna Wanyama, a legal practitioner and expert on environmental law for the last 23 years, denied an assertion aired by commissioner Olive Mugenda that he was biased against female students by reiterating that he treated all students equally.
The Moi University professor described himself as “a critical-thinker and problem-solver”.
Wanyama said he was motivated to join the bench after offering his services to the bar and academia for more than two decades following his failure to join the magistracy in 1997.
Asked to name one memorable case he has handled, Wanyama said he prosecuted a case in which a University of Nairobi student plagiarised a thesis done by another student at Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology and the former was stopped from graduating.
He said Justice Florence Muchemi, sitting in Kitale, ruled that plagiarism amounted to theft of intellectual property.
Edited by R.Wamochie
