Subject: KENYA ARRESTING CORRUPT JUDGES - SYSTEMIC FRAUD BEING PROSECUTED - WHEN DOES AMERICA CLEAN HOUSE ????
AMERICA WONT EVEN ADMIT THIS IS HAPPENING HERE .... TIME TO CLEAN UP CORRUPTION ALL OVER THE WORLD, IN THE AUTHORITY OF THE PEOPLE, ENFORCING PROSECUTION AGAINST UNACCOUNTABLE PUBLIC SERVANTS.... FULL DISCLOSURE NOW IS THE WAY THE TRUTH IS EXPOSED
President Mwai Kibaki has promised tough action on corruption
Half of Kenya's judges and nearly a third of its magistrates are corrupt, according to a committee investigating the Kenyan judiciary. The committee, itself led by a judge, gathered evidence against five of the country's nine judges in the court of appeals - Kenya's highest court - and against 18 of the 36 in the high court.
"Corruption has resulted in a loss of confidence in the judiciary as an institution," said Justice Aaron Ringera, head of the committee.
The judges accused of corruption were not identified publicly.
But under Kenyan law the chief justice will have to ask President Mwai Kibaki to appoint a tribunal for each of the 23 judges to further investigate them and to recommend the action to be taken against them.
The report came a day after the president submitted a statement of his wealth as part of a government drive against corruption.
President Kibaki promised tough action on corruption after his election in December 2002, but in recent days his record on the issue has come under the spotlight.
Credible evidence
Justice Ringera said there was credible and substantial evidence of corruption, unethical conduct and other forms of misbehaviour against 152 of Kenya's 300 judges and magistrates.
"We are, metaphorically speaking, presenting to you a dragon....it is bound to snort, kick and jump and even attack, for corruption always fights back," Justice Ringera told Chief Justice Evans Gicheru, who ordered the probe.
Justice Gicheru said that corruption was a beast which, as he put it, the judiciary was determined to wrestle to the ground.
Since Justice Gicheru became chief justice in March, more than 10 magistrates have either been sacked for corruption or incompetence, or resigned.
More than 50 court clerks and other judicial staff have also been fired for corruption.
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From Braveheart
The UK and USA require a similar purge of corrupt judges
Half of Kenyan judges were suspended over corruption claims
The first Kenyan judge to appear before a disciplinary tribunal is defending himself in the capital, Nairobi. Justice Phillip Waki went before a tribunal set up after a recent purge on corruption in the judiciary.
Half of Kenya's most senior judges were suspended last year after a committee headed by Justice Aaron Ringera gathered evidence against them.
President Mwai Kibaki set up two tribunals to probe allegations that the judges were behaving unethically.
The BBC's Grant Ferrett in Nairobi says the tribunal is an important test of the government's commitment to tackling one of the biggest problems facing Kenya.
Open courts
The tribunal investigating the Court of Appeal judges is headed by prominent Ghanaian Judge Akilano Akiwumi while that probing High Court judges is chaired by influential Kenyan constitutional lawyer Lee Muthoga.
President Kibaki said the tribunals would investigate six of the country's nine judges in the Court of Appeals - the highest court - and 17 judges out of the 36 in the High Court.
Justice Waki has denied seven counts of corruption levelled against him by the judicial probe committee on corruption.
The allegations against him include associating with suspected drugs traffickers.
He also objects to the manner of his suspension, saying the first formal notification was a letter ordering him to vacate his official residence and hand back his car.
Following requests by the accused judges, the disciplinary tribunal is being held in an open court, not in secret as originally decided.