• The petitioner alleges that the cause listing personnel exhibited the highest level of negligence of cause listing the matter before one judge.
• Businessman David Ngari added that the judge acted in a rush manner.
Image: FILE
A businessman who moved to court challenging Third way Alliance’s Punguza Mizigo referendum Bill has filed a complaint to the JSC complaining about Justice John Mativo’s conduct in the matter investigated.
In an application filed on Wednesday, David Kariuki Ngari claims that his complaint is against the Nairobi High Court Constitutional Division’s personnel responsible for cause listing and Justice Mativo.
Ngari hopes that the commission finds his application which discloses sufficient grounds for the removal of the judge and recommends the formation of a tribunal to investigate his conduct.
He says that on July 25, 2019, he and the International Economics Law Centre filed an application seeking conservatory orders to preserve the subject matter of the petition while it is pending.
The petitioner alleges that the cause listing personnel exhibited the highest level of negligence of cause listing the matter before one judge and making changes without notice to the parties and their advocates.
“It is very surprising that while all the other advocates were in Hon Lady justice Nyamweya’s court, only the Third way Alliance Kenya’s advocates were present in Justice Mativo’s court for the matter,” Ngari says in the application.
He adds that the judge acted in a rush manner in failing to enquire the circumstances which could have led to the absence of a majority of the parties’ advocates considering the advocates before him had stated that they were not "praying for drastic orders".
He says the judge through dismissing the application, has exhibited a careless and reckless attitude replete with a dangerous streak of predetermination.
“They know it all, everybody else goes to hell attitude, exhibited by the judge is unacceptable and most improper in the constitutional dispensation created by the constitution, 2010,” the application reads.
The petitioner states that the judge failed to exercise objectivity, caution and impartiality in the disposal of his application in dismissing it without considering its merit.
Ngari says the judge ignored the fact that though absent from the proceedings for whatever reason, the said advocates had filed submissions which could have relied upon to evaluate the application.
"The judge acted callously in spite of the public importance involved in the matter and the manner in which he handled the matter, renders him incapable of promoting public confidence required of him under the Constitution," he says.
“The discipline of law and its tenets have completely eluded the learned judge and he is unfit to hold the office of the judge in the courts of Kenya.”
The complaint has been copied to the principal judge of the High court, the Chief justice and the Ombudsman office.