Renowned lawyer Ahmednassir Abdullahi has tabled a damning dossier detailing how four Supreme Court judges were allegedly bribed in the Wajir gubernatorial election petition.
The senior counsel who had been challenged by Chief Justice David Maraga to file a petition for removal of the four judges if he had sufficient evidence has forwarded to the Judicial Service Commission a 6,000 word petition giving details of how they were claimed to have been bribed.
The Chief Justice while responding to Abdullahi’s graft allegations levelled against the Supreme Court challenged him and others with information on graft at the Supreme Court to file petitions or table evidence at JSC.
“I challenge him to file a petition and assure him that the JSC will take stern and appropriate action against those judges if given the evidence of alleged corruption,” CJ Maraga declared.
In his petition, the vocal lawyer details how the four were comprised to rule in favour of Wajir governor Mohamed Abdi.
He accuses Njoki Ndung’u, JB Ojwang, Smokin Wanjala and Mohamed Ibrahim of receiving bribes from the governor.
Ahmednassir represented former governor Ahmed Abdullahi who challenged the election of Governor Abdi, a case he lost. In the petition the lawyer states that the conduct of Justice Wanjala and Justice Ndung’u went against all known principles of judicial independence and conduct.
He says Justices Wanjala and Ndung’u were in constant communication with parties allied to Abdi while the case was pending.
The lawyer gives telephone numbers of Kheira Omar Bardad, Wajir governor’s wife, Mohamed Elmi (chief administrative secretary, ministry of Environment), Aden Keynan’s bodyguard which were used to communicate with Justice Ndung’u.
He also gives the telephone number of Justice Ndung’u and that of Chemoi, driver to an MP which was used in the conversations.
Elmi is the immediate former MP for Tarbaj constituency. Elmi now serves as the chief administrative secretary at ministry of Environment.
The lawyer avers that Elmi is seasoned politician and hails from Wajir county. He says in the runup to the 2017 general election, they rallied behind Mohamed and campaigned for his election as the governor of Wajir.
Abdullahi alias Grand Mullah says that through Elmi, communication was established with Wanjala and Ndung’u with a view to channel bribes for a positive and intended outcome in Mohamed’s favour.
He says Elmi met in early January to plan how they would assist Mohamed get a favourable outcome from the Supreme Court.
He says Bardad contacted Elmi using her mobile phone after which Keynan’s driver, Chemoi met with Elmi at Kencom House and they drove towards Yaya Centre to deliver money to Ndung’u’s associates.
Subsequent to the meeting, he adds, Elmi contacted Ndung’u several times, on her personal line and the two spoke.
Ahmednassir says the MP and Wanjala have a personal relationship. They were both in London in April 2018 when they were conferred with Honourary Doctorates by the Commonwealth University, London.
He argues that as a result of the communication, the decision of the Supreme Court leaked and bloggers allied to Mohamed posted the outcome before the judges walked into the Supreme Court, at 14.55 hours on