A marathon public inquiry into Kenya’s biggest financial scandal was suspended on Tuesday amid a legal row over the ejection of two lawyers representing the state.
The suspension was announced on the 282nd day of hearings by Peter le Pelley, one of three judges presiding over the Goldenberg inquiry, named after the company at the heart of an exportation compensation scam that cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars in the early 1990s.
The two lawyers, Gibson Kamau Kuria and John Khaminwa, who were last week ordered to leave the enquiry because of rowdiness, re-appeared on Tuesday armed with a High Court ruling reinstating them.
Le Pelley described the ruling as ex parte, or one-sided.
”This makes it impossible for the commission to keep ordering its proceedings. In these circumstances, we consider that the only course of action for the commission is to adjourn its proceedings,” the judge added.
Under Kenya’s Commissions of Inquiry Act, ”commissioners may exclude any person or class of persons from all or part of the proceedings of the inquiry if he is satisfied that it is desirable to do or for the preservation of order”.
Le Pelley said the Goldenberg inquiry will remain suspended until this clause can be ”interpreted” or until the High Court order lapses or is overturned. — Sapa-AFP