The move to identify the potential candidate to replace the retired Chief Justice Dr. Willy Mutunga continued yesterday as Daniel Wambura faced the committee to explain how he would bring change to the judiciary if he was handed the task.
Wambura had a long day after the JSC demanded to know why he had decided to apply for the post yet his track of records was already poorly written after presiding elections that lead to the eruption of chaos leaving some people dead, others injured and thousands displaced.
“Much as you reluctantly take collective responsibility for what happened post-2007, you are saying in the areas that you were Commissioner, supervising elections, there were not many problems. Now you want to come in to head the institution of the judiciary,” Commissioner Emily Ominde posed. “Why shouldn’t you take responsibility for the failings of the Commission and why then should we reward you by bringing you to the Judiciary to head?” Emily asked Wambura.
Wambura was quick to note that “It was not electoral commissioner applying for the job” at that moment adding that it was him “as a person”.
Attorney General Githu Muigai was however not convinced that Wambura has what it takes to steer the vessel that is the judiciary given his lack of courtroom experience in the two decades since admission onto the roll of advocates.
Wambura also failed to disclose to the panel whether he earned double salaries when he served in ECK without having resigned as a directorate of legal services Foreign Affairs ministry.
“I was not interviewed for the ECK job. I had not resigned from public service when I was nominated. After the ECK was disbanded in 2008, I stayed jobless for more than one year,” he replied to a question by High Court judge Mohamed Warsame.
Wambura, now the principal administrative secretary in Deputy President William Ruto’s office, said he was appointed by the Public Service Commission in August 2013, but admitted he has never practised law since his admission to the bar in 1996.
He, however, claimed he has the relevant legal experience to head the Judiciary. Asked on the bungled 2007 election that resulted in violence, Wambura said former ECK commissioners suffered mental torture and most of them resorted to prayer, meditation, and counseling.