Justice Eric Ogolla the presiding Mombasa High Court judge is a man under siege. Already lawyers in Mombasa are questioning why the judge is always out to handle matters relating to Mombasa county and why 2017 election petitions that were filed against elected politicians in Governor Hassan Joho camp were all dismissed. Lawyers also want Judicial Service Commission to profile all the cases the judge has handled while in Mombasa in relation to Joho family members and his allies. The judge has been grumbling with fear of being disciplined over massive corruption and gross misconduct claims currently facing him before JSC filed by lawyer John Mburu. He is said to have been in deep panic following the JSC petition. Ogolla, Joho relationship is the talk. Weekly Citizen has information that the resident judge has since been suffering from serious depression to an extent as he tries to contend with changes ongoing at the judiciary.
Hassan JohoSources privy to his office at Mombasa Law Courts say the judge’s working relationship with his junior judicial officers in particular has since been going from bad to worse as he sometimes goes to the extent of shouting and calling them names in the presence of visitors. The judge linked to Mombasa governor family cases is claimed to have chased away one of his court clerks on claims that the clerk is not cooperative. The new court clerk from Mt Kenya region attached to Ogolla’s office has not been spared either with the judge’s behaviour which includes closing himself inside the office every morning for almost half an hour forcing the clerk to wait for him outside always before they head to the courtroom for daily court proceedings. Justice Ogola is said to be using Steven Onyango, a court broker and his close ally, in deals. Onyango, who comes from Suba in Homa Bay county, was at one time spotted at a restaurant in Mombasa with a Turkish national. Onyango was acting as a broker in a case the Turkish national, Elsek Osman, was involved.
Eric OgollaThat is civil suit No 2 of 2018 between Kikambala Housing Estate Ltd verses Bank of Africa Kenya Ltd concerning a property with a title No Kilifi/Mtwapa 867 on which 309 residential houses stand. The Mombasa judge was also forced to dismiss himself from a case involving a Nairobi multi-billion dollar Tatu City special economic zone in 2015. In 2020, he also dismissed an application by an applicant who claimed he may not get a fair hearing from him following claims he had been compromised in the case. Sources privy to the judge say, he has acquired several properties in Nyali, Mombasa. Also needs to be investigated is Ogolla’s recent trip abroad and who paid for it. The judge is currently facing several petitions against him before JSC where he has been adversely accused of corruption and misconduct.
Anne AmadiThe petitioners have linked Justice Ogolla to a criminal association with Joho implicating him of being the governor’s blue-eyed boy at the judicial circles. In the petition before JSC, a petitioner accuses Ogolla of allocating himself cases involving Mombasa county and Joho family. Senior lawyers in Mombasa are also unhappy with him accusing the judge of highhandedness and having poor working relations with members of the bench. Ogolla, who claims to have acquired his law degree from an Indian university, has been practicing in Mombasa both as a lawyer and a judge for the last 20 years raising eyebrows from members of the public who see malice over his questionable integrity while handling cases at the Mombasa Law Courts. In the forged certificate saga after Joho was summoned by Directorate of Criminal Investigations, he rushed to court with a petition alleging violation of his fundamental rights.
John MburuHe sought stoppage of investigations against him and possible prosecution relating to forgery of Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education, money laundering, among other crimes. Along with the petition, he filed an application seeking for temporary orders to stop prosecution pending the hearing of the petition. Surprisingly, the court under Ogolla allowed the application on the same grounds. Legal minds in Mombasa well-versed with the case say, although the Judge received enough evidence of forgery in the report from Serani Secondary School where Joho schooled, he gave a doctored judgment. The school management, in a written document, stated no candidate by the name Ali Hassan Joho sat for KCSE and that in fact it was a forgery. Ogolla, according to the Mombasa lawyer, boasts to be close to High Court Registrar Ann Atieno Amadi and cannot be removed from Mombasa.
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