23 October 2013

Shollei sacked by Judicial Service Commission (JSC) for Corruption allegations



As morning wakes, chief registrar of the high court has been shown the door following allegations of corruption and misappropriation. Ms. Gladys Boss Shollei has been in the centre of a dispute where JSC has blamed her for insubordination, corruption and misappropriation of Judiciary funds to a tune of Kshs 2.1 billion. On the other hand, Shollei has sought to clear her name terming the accusations as witch-hunt and political oriented. She further accused the JSC team of highhandedness and wanting to operate above the law.

At a parliamentary inquiry, the registrar came out to accuse the JSC team of drawing abnormal allowances of upto Kshs 80,000 per sitting, a matter she says is the root cause of their fallout. After noticing the anomaly, the registrar sought to have clear guidelines on allowances by writing to the treasury with fruitless efforts. A week ago, JSC stood ground and fired Ms. Shollei pending investigations whereas judiciary staff closely linked to her were locked out of their offices to pave way for investigations. Among the accusations was that she illegally awarded herself a salary advance without following due procedure, a matter still under scrutiny.

There has been a major outcry from the public over mismanagement of funds and corruption cases implicating senior government officials. They sought to find answers on why JSC members got very huge allowances per sitting, how many sittings took place, time per sitting, where the sittings were held, how close to Shs 140 million was paid out as allowances in the last two years and many other issues. The justice system has come under criticism as the public pressed for initiation of plans that will clear the many pending cases in courts; and also ensure that the transformation of the institution is monitored and evaluated.

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