The Judicial Service Commission will meet to discuss a petition seeking the removal of High Court judge, Said Juma Chitembwe, on integrity grounds following a viral video leaked by former Nairobi governor Mike Sonko.

In the video shared online by Sonko, Justice Chitambe is allegedly seeking for a bribe to rule in favour of a petitioner in a land dispute case.

“The Judicial Service Commission will meet to deliberate on the issue according to its constitution and statutory set procedures,” Chief Justice Martha Koome said in a statement.

The Law Society of Kenya on Wednesday called on the judge to step aside pending investigations and petitioned the JSC to investigate the judge, failure to which they will have him ejected from office.

“Lawyers will boycott Chitembwe’s court if no action is taken against him”, said LSK Nairobi chairman Eric Theuri.

Justice Chitambe has come out public and denied the allegations, saying the video has been edited to paint him in bad light.

“Some parts have been left out. I knew about the existence of the videos in July and it was just a matter of when they would be out,” he said in a media interview.

He further accused the former Governor of witchhunt saying he was aggrieved after he lost a case in which the judge was presiding.

According to Justice Chitambe, Sonko had filed a petition to stop the swearing-in of Ann Kananu as Nairobi Governor but the court dismissed it.

“It is not a coincidence that the videos are released on the day of Anne Kananu’s swearing-in. He was angry the petition didn’t go through,” Chitembwe said.

Controversy

In July this year, the Judge was also arrested alongside justice Aggrey Muchelule after Police allegedly found 57,000 US dollars in their chambers.

The two were arrested and taken to DCI headquarters before they were released on the same day.

High Court later blocked them from arresting, prosecuting or further investigating the two judges.