The Salaries and Remuneration Commission now wants a case filed in court accusing it of failing to provide judges with a car grant of up to Ksh10 million submitted to Chief Justice Martha Koome, who will appoint a bench of three judges to decide on the matter.
When the case came up for directions before Justice Lawrence Mugambi, SRC through lawyer Peter Wanyama urged the court to find that the case filed by activist Peter Mwangi Gachuiri raised a substantial question of law and referred the matter to CJ Koome to appoint an even bench of judges to hear and decide the case.
“SRC is seeking that this matter be certified as raising a substantial question of law and be forwarded to the CJ to appoint a bench of an even number of judges to determine the matter. The question of whether judges are special state officers is definitely a novel issue,” Wanyama said.
He added that depending on the determination of the application to have the CJ appoint a bench to hear the case, SRC is expected to raise further issues with respect to the conflict of interest of judges.
According to Wanyama, the same presents a huge impartiality test for judges who will have to decide on a matter that directly concerns their personal welfare.
