Milimani Anti-Corruption High Court Judge Nixon Sifuna on Thursday asked all lawyers in the country to restrain their clients from reaching him in order to induce and compromise him in their cases.
According to Sifuna, several people had tried to reach him using proxies, brokers, politicians and musicians in a bid to influence him to make favourable rulings in corruption-related cases.
“I am requesting advocates to restrain their clients, who have tried to reach out to the court through proxies and brokers. Each one of you should advise your clients to sit back and watch you(lawyers) representing them in the case. If they wanted to represent themselves in the case they would have done so. The fact they are represented by advocates they need to relax and allow the lawyers to do their work,” Justice Sifuna stated.
Judge calls for professional conduct
While condemning the act, the judge requested all lawyers to give the court a professional undertaking that clients would stop trying to reach the court.
During a virtual session on Thursday, October 19, 2023, the judge further claimed that some clients even use lawyers to try and lure judges into giving biased verdicts.
Sifuna made the remarks as he was delivering a ruling in a case where the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) is pursuing over Ksh185 million it believes was fraudulently acquired from the Turkana County Government by eight suspects, including county official Mathew Kipchumba Kipkemei.
The judge urged lawyer Jack Bigambo Bigambo, who is representing a proxy company that was allegedly used by a Turkana County Government official and his family members to siphon Ksh185 million in payments for goods never supplied, to tell their clients to stop interfering with the court process.
The judge made it very clear that the suspects in the case had tried to reach him using various individuals including politicians from Western Kenya and other lawyers who were not party to the case.
“Your client has used politicians from the Western province, they have used musicians to try reach out to the court. It is very unfortunate and not just they have even used other lawyers who are not a party to the case. Please tell them to keep off the court. The court will decide cases according to justice,” the judge stated.
In response to the judge’s sentiments, lawyer Bigambo said he was not aware of such moves by his client and took the undertaking to restrain his clients from further attempting to influence the court.
The claims of interference in the Ksh185 million court proceedings are not new as in December last year former trial judge Esther Maina in the case put Lawyer Bigambo on the spot after he allegedly forged an EACC stamp and attempted to use it in court documents to secure a court order.
Bigambo is said to have forged the document in an attempt to have the motor vehicle belonging to one Benson Mwangangi Njeru, which has since been frozen by the High Court, released.
Currently, the lawyer is facing criminal charges before Milimani’s chief magistrate for tempering with court proceedings and is out cash bail of Ksh100,000
By K24