Senior counsel Ahmednasir Abdullahi risks being sued if he fails to apologise for the wrong he did to one of the supreme Court Judges. Supreme Court judge Mohamed Ibrahim has threatened to file a case against Ahmednasir for insinuating his stand on the Wajir gubernatorial election appeal was corruptibly influenced.
According to The Star, Ahmednasir sent him a WhatsApp message insinuating he was bribed.
The senior counsel was representing former Wajir Governor Ahmed Abdullahi who challenged the election of Governor Mohamed Abdi. The court upheld Abdi’s election.
Ibrahim says Ahmednasir made a series of tweets on February 14, the eve of the ruling, claiming the 4-2 bench decision was influenced.
“I’m proud while hearing all the rumours of judges of the Supreme Court receiving money in sags…and hags. You are the ONLY…ONLY…ONLY judge who is not mentioned even once for taking money and many lawyers know that. But lawyers are accusing you of not being firm and strong and I think you need to retrace your footsteps. Nobody has suffered for this country in that court like you did…and in my view and please even if you are always alone…dissent if that’s where justice and the law are…don’t follow the majority blindly when we know the majority in that court is brought together by MONEY…,” reads the message Ahmednasir sent to Ibrahim on WhatsApp.
He said the senior counsel published information on his twitter page insinuating the judge was corruptibly influenced to uphold the election of Abdi.
“The problem with corruption in the Kenyan Supreme Court as aptly shown by the judgment of Wajir gubernatorial petition is that corruption is single sourced, not open and competitive. My client was not invited to put his bid and some judges took money from only one party,” Ahmednasir tweeted.
“We know from a reliable source in the Supreme Court that the six judges tied at 3.3 until yesterday afternoon when Justice Ibrahim changed his mind to make it 4:2. What happened? Who lobbied Ibrahim? Why did he change at the 11th hour? Ibrahim must tell Kenyans what we know.”
He promised to write to Chief Justice David Maraga to name the judges who were bribed and how much money each got and from whom.
He claimed one of the judges was bribed through an MP and the money taken from the branch of a local bank in Eastleigh.
The judge now demands that the Grand Mullah, as Ahmednasir is popularly known, ceases and desist from further “making the impugned allegations” and that he publishes an apology and pull down the tweets within seven days.
“Or he faces libel suit including a claim for punitive damages,” Ibrahim said. Justice Jackton Ojwang’ also demanded Ahmednasir publishes the apology both on twitter and on two newspapers with nationwide circulation.
Ahmednasir denied knowledge of Ibrahim’s letter. “I have not seen the said letter. If I see it, I will comment,” he told the Star by phone.