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{
    "id": 643511,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/643511/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 117,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Kaluma",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1565,
        "legal_name": "George Peter Opondo Kaluma",
        "slug": "george-peter-opondo-kaluma"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Speaker. I rise to support the Vetting of Judges and Magistrates Bill. I would like to remind my colleagues of the unique and limited mandate that this Board was executing. There is no precedent for the work this Board was executing anywhere in the world; judging judges and judicial officers. I agree with Hon. Ababu that when we promulgated the new Constitution, we insisted in a good provision that all judicial officers who were serving before the Constitution came into force had to undergo vetting. Ours was a Judiciary lost. It was a lost institution in terms of integrity, independence and public trust, the good ideals that would anchor the proper judicial institution that Hon. Namwamba spoke eloquently about. The vetting was for that limited range of judicial officers, the ones who were serving before. When you are questioning the quality of decisions coming from the courts today, are these largely decisions of the judges who have been vetted or decisions of judges who were appointed after the promulgation of the new Constitution? We could be blaming the good body over the human errors of individuals who were not subject to their jurisdiction. The mandate of the Board was not just to check suitability on grounds of the Constitution and the law we are seeking to amend at very restrictive provisions. I would like to report to the Members if they would permit me that as an officer of the court, like Hon. Namwamba, I continue to appear in court although on a pro bono basis and there is a lot of good that came from the Board. Before the vetting process started in 2012, as advocates, we feared appearing before some judges as Hon. (Ms.) Kajuju will tell you. They would even ask the colour of your shirt and where you slept before going to court. Kenyans were being harassed in a manner that going to court to petition for a right cost you a lot of pain. In our Judiciary today, with all those difficulties, the court is today more approachable, accessible and any Kenyan can walk into unrestricted about how they should deal with a matter. This is the way to go. The reason for that extension is that in that very Constitution, we said that all judicial officers, judges and magistrates who were serving then and desire to continue serving must go through vetting. This is not legislative. What does the Board do when a judicial officer applies for review, which is allowed by both the Constitution and the Act? What does the Judges and Magistrates Vetting Board do when a judge, even beyond those provisions, goes to the High Court in the exercise of those rights vested under Article 47 of the Constitution? The fact of the matter is that the Constitution has conditioned their seizing of duty to the vetting of all judges and magistrates. By going to court, the process is stopped. The body confirmed to us that they have undertaken the entire process of review. In terms of the matters that were pending before other bodies, it was only Judge Ombija whose matter was still pending. It was only last week that Judge Ombija resigned from the Judiciary. This is a unique board. The experiences of that Board can be taken elsewhere. That is why the position of this Parliament has been that we cannot have permanent transitory bodies like the Transition Authority. We were saying that all those institutions must transit at some point in time. For this particular one, we made a decision in a collegiate manner with members of the Committee and other Committees of Parliament that we sat with. I remember we also sat with the Committee on the implementation of the Constitution. Cases like The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}