Court of Appeal Judge Sankale Ole Kantai can now breathe easy after the High Court barred the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) from hearing two petitions seeking his removal from office.
In a ruling delivered on Tuesday, Justice Anthony Mrima ordered JSC not to entertain the petitions filed by activist Okiya Omtatah and late Tob Cohen’s sister Gabriel Hannah Van Straten.
The two had petitioned JSC to launch a probe into the conduct of the judge over Cohen’s murder.
In his ruling, the judge noted that the two petitions relate to another case filed by the judge against the Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) George Kinoti and the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Noordin Haji.
“The respondent (JSC) is hereby retrained from considering and making any decision on the petitions filed by Okiya Omtatah and Gabriel Hannah Van Straten,” justice Mrima ruled.
He directed that the file be placed before him for consideration.
Read: Court Bars Police from Arresting Justice Sankale Over Alleged Links to Tob Cohen Murder
The judge made the ruling following an application filed by Justice Sankale who has been linked to the cold-blood murder of the Dutch businessman by the DCI.
Justice Sankale told the court that the two petitions emanate from Haji’s decision not to approve murder charges against him over the tycoon’s murder.
“I am appreciably apprehensive that the petitions filed at the Judicial Service Commission are solely based on the replying affidavit of John Gachomo sworn on September 20, 2021. They are a collateral attack over the decision of the DPP not to charge me as aforesaid,” Justice Sankale said in court documents.
Sankale moved to court after Gathomo accused Haji of illegally terminating investigations against the judge in August last year.
Read Also: ODPP Never Received Evidence Linking Justice Sankale Kantai To Tob Cohen’s Murder
In the said affidavit, the senior DCI officer claimed that justice Sankale, who was arrested in February 2021, actively participated in the planning and cover-up of the murder of Cohen.
Gachomo claimed that the judge and the deceased’s wife Sarah Wairimu, who is one of the two suspects charged with the murder of Cohen, met on various occasions to plan the murder of the late tycoon.
It has in the past been alleged that the judge was indeed in a clandestine affair with Cohen’s widow.
In a move aimed at proving why DCI believes that Justice Kantai was part of the scheme, Gachomo said that the judge fraudulently transferred shares of a company that was being run by Cohen from Silas Itas before eventually transferring them to Wairimu.
Read Also: Tob Cohen’s Family Wants DPP Haji Kicked Out Over ‘Selective’ Prosecution of Murder Suspects
He said that Cohen was killed two days after the fraudulent transfer was discovered.
Cohen’s body was found in a septic tank at his Kitisuru home in Farasi Lane on September 13, 2019, over a month after he went missing.
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