Past rulings come back to haunt judge seeking CJ post

Past rulings came to haunt Supreme Court Judge
Alnashir Visram, who was the first applicant to face
the Judicial Service Commission’s interview panel
for the post of Chief Justice in Nairobi on Monday.
This came as the commission set new interview
dates for the seven non-shortlisted applicants for
the post, among them a US-based university don,
Prof Makau Mutua, retired Judge Aaron Ringera
and Supreme Court Judge Jackton Ojwang, in
compliance with a High Court ruling. The court had
ruled that the commission consider them for
interviews.
Justice Visram was asked to clarify why he granted
hefty payments to plaintiffs in defamation cases
where at one time he awarded powerful President
Daniel Moi-era Cabinet Minister Nicholas Biwott
Sh30 million in a suit against a newspaper.
He was also taken to task over how he arrived at
the Sh25 million he awarded in another defamation
suit filed against the UK-based publishers of the
book, Dr Ian West Casebook, and its two authors.
The judge defended himself, saying awards in
defamation suits were the discretion of a judge as it
may be appropriate.
He argued that in the Dr West case, Mr Biwott was
defamed in the hard cover of the book that was
circulated in libraries worldwide and that the
authors entered a consensual agreement to pay
Sh10 million as damages.
A suit Justice Visram had also filed in 2011 against
another local publication also came up, as he was
asked to explain how he would cope with sharp
criticism and debate about his performance as
Chief Justice, and particularly from the media.
HIS STAND
Justice Visram, who is also the presiding judge of
the Court of Appeal in Nyeri, would find himself in
a tight corner again after Attorney-General Githu
Muigai sought his stand on whether the death
penalty would stay and on the homosexuality
debate.
While he dodged the homosexuality question,
promising to deal with it appropriately if it came to
his desk, he maintained that the death penalty is
not appropriate and challenged the courts to
determine an appropriate sentence instead.
The judge pledged to automate all judicial processes
in his first 100 days in office, such as filing of
cases to ensure it is done any time of day to curtail
corruption at the registry.
Justice Visram also promised to eliminate the
current backlog of cases and set up structures for
the training of expert negotiators to act as alternate
dispute resolution mechanisms. He cited his record
of training 300 such negotiators globally. He further
promised to call meetings to “rebrand” the
Judiciary to build confidence levels and to upscale
the anti-graft war.
The judge also promised to build a more
independent judicial system even as he cited the
media as one of the obstacles to judicial
independence.
Following the High Court ruling, the interviews for
the included Chief Justice applicants will start on
September 5, and end on September 13, while for
post of deputy CJ and Supreme Court judge will be
announced later.
“In complying with the directions of the court, the
JSC will publish the revised schedule of interviews
for the positions of Deputy Chief Justice and
Supreme Court judge,” said the commission in a
statement on Monday.