Bad blood between Ringera and Ahmednasir

Outspoken JSC commissioner Ahmednasir Abdullahi. Fresh details have come to light in the raging controversy between President Uhuru Kenyatta and the Judicial Service Commission over the ill-fated appointment of a tribunal to investigate six members of the team. Photo/BILLY MUTAI | FILE Nation Media Group

Monday, December 09, 2013

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Fresh details have come to light in the raging controversy between President Uhuru Kenyatta and the Judicial Service Commission over the ill-fated appointment of a tribunal to investigate six members of the team.

Retired Justice Aaron Ringera was last week appointed to chair a tribunal to investigate six JSC commissioners who face allegations of impropriety in their conduct as Judiciary chiefs.

It has now appeared that Mr Ringera ran afoul of lawyer Ahmednasir Abdullahi, who had questioned his impartiality in a separate civil dispute which the former judge has been appointed to arbitrate.
When Gravet Ltd and Mohammed Hassan Maalim and two others fell out over a business transaction, they resorted to arbitration to settle their dispute.

The Chartered Institute of Arbitrators appointed Mr Ringera, who now works as a legal consultant and arbitrator, to settle the dispute.

Arbitration is often used to settle disputes by parties in civil disputes who would rather avoid the courts as a first port of call and is recognised in law.

In arbitration, every party is represented by a lawyer as they would be in a court while the arbitrator sits as a judge does in the normal court.

Mr Ringera sits as the arbitrator in the matter between Gravet, represented by lawyer James Oduol and Mr Maalim, represented by Ahmednasir.

Documents seen by the Sunday Nation show that as soon as Mr Ringera was appointed the arbitrator, Mr Ahmednasir wrote a letter in July protesting the choice.

Mr Ahmednasir related why he was uncomfortable participating in a matter which the retired judge would arbitrate.

“It is our client’s instruction that in light of the history and bad blood between yourself and their advocates on record, your impartiality as the Sole Arbitrator is in grave doubt, and that in light of the circumstances and the issues that inform their instructions, you are incapable of being an independent and unbiased arbitrator,” Mr Ahmednasir wrote.

WORKED TOGETHER

It appears from correspondence that the icy relations between the two started when Mr Ringera was the chairman of the defunct Kenya Anti-Corruption Authority and Mr Ahmednasir was the chairman of the board at the same institution.

Mr Ahmednasir was instrumental in the hiring of Mr Ringera for the job but later began writing critical articles about the retired judge. Mr Ringera felt so injured by two of the articles by Mr Ahmednasir that he sued the concerned publication for defamation. The matter is still pending before the courts, and Mr Ahmednasir is expected to appear as a witness.

According to Mr Ahemdnasir, sometime before September, he met Mr Ringera at a Nairobi hotel and as the two exchanged greetings, the retired judge accused the lawyer of engineering his exit from the defunct KACC.

Words to that effect are said to have been uttered in the presence of senior counsel Paul Muite. Mr Ahmednasir also feels that Mr Ringera’s judgment on the civil matter would be clouded by the fact that the retired judge had unsuccessfully applied for a job to the Judicial Service Commission.

Mr Ahmednasir’s client has sworn an affidavit supporting his lawyers claim and also asked Mr Ringera to disqualify himself. But responding to the allegation, Mr Oduol termed them “incompetent, without any reasons” and said he had “express instructions from our client to oppose it.”

Mr Ringera asked each party to pay him Sh58,000 starter fees. Last Thursday, the parties met for a preliminary hearing, but the matter did not proceed.

It was at this hearing that Mr Ringera would have been expected to pronounce himself on the questions raised about his suitability to handle the matter. He will be expected to do so and give his reasons for whichever decision he takes in the subsequent hearings.

Mr Ringera was last week appointed by President Kenyatta for a far larger task––to investigate six JSC commissioners, including Mr Ahmednasir. But the High Court stopped the Ringera tribunal.

The appointments will now remain on hold until the courts make a determination about the fate of the Ringera team. In all likelihood, and should the courts open the door for the Ringera team to probe JSC members, the questions Mr Ahmednasir raised will come to haunt the tribunal.

The feud has become part of the wider battle for power among the Judiciary, Parliament and the Executive. The struggles were touched off by investigations into the conduct of former Chief Registrar Gladys Boss Shollei.

When the JSC – her employer – questioned some of the financial dealings in which the the Judiciary was involved, Mrs Shollei came out guns blazing.

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