Kanyeihamba Panel Blasted

By Reuben Olitaand Okello Jabweli A Commonwealth panel of judicial experts led by a Ugandan Supreme Court Judge, Prof. George Kanyeihamba, has been attacked for its report which labelled the Kenyan judiciary corrupt and rotten.the panel on Monday said they were shocked and dismayed by the wide- spread allegations of corruption in the Kenyan judiciary. They said the public had lost faith in the system of justice.“While many Kenyan judges continue to fulfil their judiciary duties faithfully to their judicial oath, the public confidence in the independence and impartiality of the judiciary has virtually collapsed,” the report said.But Kenyan Chief Justice Bernard Chunga described the report, presented to the Constitutional Review Commission as “a zero percent achievement which will not be accepted.” Addressing a seminar for magistrates on Monday, Chunga accused the legal authorities, including judges from Canada and other African countries of disobeying protocol, judicial etiquette, ethics and acting on rumours. He said Kenya deprecates any views which amount to nothing more than wholesale condemnation of the judiciary, based on rumour and hearsay.“A visitor cannot come here, stay at a lavish five-star hotel and tell me that my judicial system is at crossroads after only two days of entertainment,” Chunga said. “A Judge of one country, unless specifically authorised by statute, cannot purport to carry out a probe or an inquiry against a judicial system of another country.” he added.The Kanyeihamba panel spent two weeks meeting Kenyan judges and constitutional commissioners and carried out field visits around Nairobi area. They received allowances for their work.Chunga said the Kenyan judicial system is not at crossroads as alleged by the panel. “the Kenyan Judiciary is not weak. It suffers no rot. It is in many ways far much better and stronger than many other judicial systems that we know of,” he said. Members of the panel were Justice Damain Lubuva from Tanzania, Lady Justice Yvonne Mokgoro (South Africa), Justice Robert Sharpe (Ontario, Canada) and Prof. EdRaatushny of the University of Ottawa in Canada.Ends