• Gabriel van Straten, Cohen's sister, filed a petition.
• Through lawyer Danstan Omari, Straten says the response filed by the investigation officer laid bare the extent of the "involvement" of judge.
Image: FILE
The family of late Dutch businessman Tob Cohen has now petitioned the Judicial Service Commission seeking to remove Justice Sankale ole Kantai from office.
Gabriel van Straten, Cohen's sister, filed a petition asking the JSC to begin the process of removing the embattled judge from office, citing gross misconduct.
“The investigations carried out by the DCI linked the judge to the murder of the late Cohen,” the petition states.
Through lawyer Danstan Omari, Straten says the response filed by the investigation officer laid bare the extent of the "involvement and illegal and fraudulent dealings of the judge and his possible culpability in the murder of my late brother".
“My late brother had never instructed the judge to transfer the said share and it is evident that the transfer was unknown to him,” she says.
Kantai this month obtained orders barring his arrest or prosecution in relation to the case.
It is Straten's argument that the judge has exhibited "gross misbehaviour evidenced by the engaging in an extra-marital affair with Sarah, a married woman, while being a married man."
“Booking and checking into a hotel room at the Acacia hotels Kisumu with the said Sarah and spending two nights together,” she argues.
Straten says it was gross misconduct for the judge to be intimate with Sarah despite knowing that she is a married woman and by extension a central figure in an ongoing criminal trial.
She has accused the judge of a further act of gross misconduct saying he assisted Sarah Wairimu write and edit her statement under inquiry regarding the disappearance of her brother.
“This amounted to an abuse of the office of judge as he evidently was interfering with active police investigations and was an accessory to the fact of murder,” the petition reads.
He is also alleged to have counseled Sarah to procure a fake power of attorney in February 2019.
Straten says Clause 7(14) of the Judicial Code of Conduct and Ethics provides that a judge shall not practice law by offering legal advice or drafting pleadings for litigants or members of the public, whether for a fee of free of charge while the holder of a judicial office.
“I believe the action of the judge to draft the witness statements for the accused persons, Sarah Wairimu as evidenced by their email correspondence is a breach of the clause and should occasion the removal of the judge,” she says.
According to court papers, in a further breach of the above clause and in further demonstration of the gross misconduct on the part of the judge, he admits in his statement under inquiry made to the DCI that he hosted the accused Sarah in his official chambers at Nyeri in February and March 2019 and discussed with her an active divorce case filed by Cohen at Milimani commercial courts.
She also claims that the judge violated clause 5(5) that bars him from making comments on a matter that is likely to come before him claiming that he edited and coached Sarah on her statement under inquiry with a view of corruptly affecting the outcome of the trial in which she is charged with murder.
"Considering the nature of the accusations facing the judge, it is clear that the public will lose the confidence and the respect of the office of the judge of he is allowed to continue to be in office,” she says.