The Commission on Administrative Justice (CAJ) (Office of the Ombudsman) suspended the summons issued to the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) members back in February.
The commission had on February 28, 2025, summoned 10 JSC commissioners to appear before it on March 25.
The 10 commissioners were to respond to allegations of failing to publish and publicise status reports on all unresolved matters put forward against the judicial officers pending before the Judiciary Ombudsman and the JSC.
"The suspension was necessitated by the need to allow for inter-institutional engagement with JSC through dialogue, mediation and or negotiation," CAJ Chairperson Charles Dulo said.
According to Dulo, the withdrawal of suspension follows a request from Chief Justice Martha Koome and is in line with Article 159 (2)(c) of the Constitution and Regulation 23 of the Commission on Administrative Justice of 2013.
"In addition, this decision has been informed by a pending matter before the Supreme Court - Advisory number E001 of 2025, which is coming up on April 3, where the commission has sought advisory opinion on how to handle complaints touching on Constitutional Commissioners and developed governments in relation to its powers and limitations."
Dulo said that given that the Supreme Court is seized of the advisory, the commission has decided to suspend all the summons issued on February 28 to JSC members.
This allows these two processes to proceed without let or hindrance and to demonstrate CAJ's good faith and commitment to resolve the issues amicably, he said.
Dulo, in the February summons, the commission had requested that all complaints handled by both the office of the Judiciary Ombudsman and the JSC be published in accordance with the provisions of Art.35 (3) of the Constitution and 55 of Access to Information Act.
Dulo noted that the request was made on December 23, 2024, and February 4, 2025, and JSC was given 21 days to comply.
“Regrettably, this has not been done and the 21-day period has elapsed,” Dulo said in the summons.
