– Justice Philip Tunoi is accused of receiving a bribe of KSh 200 million from Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero.
– The judge and Kidero have all along been denying the existence of such an arrangement as revealed by a whistle-blower who was a middleman in the deal.
– The Judicial Service Commission had formed a special committee to investigate the matter.
– It has recommended the matter to a special tribunal that should be formed by Uhuru Kenyatta, an indication that the allegations could be true.
The KSh 200 million bribery allegation facing Supreme Court judge Philip Tunoi has taken an interesting turn after the matter was referred to a special tribunal that is to be formed by Uhuru Kenyatta.
A six member team appointed buy Chief Justice Wily Mutunga has found the judge could have received the bribe and thus recommended his matter to the special tribunal.
” We are satisfied that enough evidence has been adduced to show that there was inappropriate communication between the judge (Tunoi) and agents of a litigant (Kidero) regarding a matter pending before court,” reads the recommendations from the committee.
It thus means there are enough reasons to believe that indeed the bribery allegations are true and Evans Kidero is not clean either.
The matter came to the public domain after journalist Geoffrey Kiplagat claimed he was a facilitator of the bribe and even witnessed as Kidero handed the KSh 200 million to the judge.
This prompted Willy Mutunga to promise investigations so as to establish the truth of the matter.
Kiplagat had presented a sworn affidavit to the judiciary detailing how Evans Kidero allegedly gave the millions of shillings to Philip Tunoi in order to have an election petition ruled in his favor.
The latest developments now raise questions on the ruling on Ferdinand Waititu v/s Evans Kidero election petition which the now Kabete Member of Parliament has already said should be thrown out.
Waititu had contested the election at the High Court and lost but successfully filed an appeal in the Court of Appeal that saw Kidero’s election nullified in May 2014.
In August the same year, Supreme Court quashed the appellate court’s decision saying that Waititu had filed his appeal well past the 30 days stipulated in the Elections Act at 72 days after the High Court’s judgement.
Uhuru Kenyatta is expected to form a special tribunal to further investigate Tunoi before recommending grounds for his suspension or sacking form the Judicial Service Commission.
