Deputy Chief Justice Kalpana Rawal has been ordered to retire after the Appeals Court Friday upheld a ruling by a lower court that the mandatory retirement age for all judges is 70.
Rawal, 70, together with suspended Supreme Court Judge Phillip Tunoi, had proposed that they retire at 74 as per the contract they signed under the old Constitution.
Tunoi is 72.
Lawyer Waweru Gatonye who was representing Rawal, said he will appeal against the ruling.
The DCJ wanted seven judges of the Court of Appeal to overturn an earlier decision by the High Court that judges should retire at 70 as stipulated in the Constitution.
In September last year, the Judicial Service Commission had served Justice Rawal with a retirement notice and invited suitable candidates to apply for her position, a decision she contested.
The commission had issued a four-month notice of retirement for the DCJ, setting in motion plans to have her replacement in office by January 15, 2015.
JSC had moved to court to block Rawal from appealing against a High Court decision calling for her immediate retirement in accordance with the 2010 Constitution.