Registrar of Supreme Court, Esther Nyaiyaki, aalongside August 8 presidential election petitioners NASA leaders. [Photo|The East African]
The Law Society of Kenya (LSK) has defended Registrar of Supreme Court, Esther Nyaiyaki after the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) launched investigations into her conduct.LSK President Isaac Okerro, has written to the EACC chairman Archbishop (Rtd) Eliud Wabukhala, opposing the Commission's move, saying it will amount to an attack on the independence of the Judiciary.On Monday last week (September 25), the EACC, wrote to Chief Registrar of the Judiciary Ann Amadi, asking for the submission of documents used in the proceedings of the Supreme Court in regards to presidential petition filed against re-election of President Uhuru Kenyatta, in the August 8th elections.This is after Nyaiyaki supervised a team of ICT experts named by the Judiciary to examine the materials that the electoral body, IEBC, used to declare the presidential result, a move that saw one, Rashid Mohamed, accuse her of misleading the Supreme Court judges in ruling in favour of the petitioner, NASA.LSK defended Nyaiyaki, saying she was acting on the interim orders of the Supreme Court, and that an investigation against an officer of the Judiciary can only be conducted by the organs of the Judiciary, such as the Judicial Service Commission (JSC).Okero now wants EACC to stop its investigations, and leave the matter to the Supreme Court or JSC, which is chaired by the Chief Justice, David Maraga.
“The Judiciary in the performance of its functions under the Constitution exercises delegated sovereign authority of the people of Kenya. It would be an affront to and violation of this sovereign authority for the EACC to proceed with the proposed enquiry and investigation,” Okero said in the letter dated October 3, 2017 to EACC.