Tribunal looks into bribe claim against judge

Kenya's top legal body on Friday recommended a tribunal investigate allegations that a Supreme Court judge took a $2m bribe for a favourable ruling. Chief Justice Willy Mutunga said the Judicial Service Commission committee set up to investigate Justice Phillip Tunoi recommended a further probe. Dawn reports that Tunoi is accused by journalist Geoffrey Kiplagat of receiving a bribe to make a judgment favouring Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero, whose March 2013 election was being challenged by his closest rival. Tunoi, through his lawyer Fred Ngatia, said he was ready to face the tribunal and reiterated his innocence. Kiplagat claims he participated in the deal to bribe the judge. A report on the News24 site quotes Mutunga as saying ‘the commission is satisfied that there was inappropriate interaction and communication between Tunoi and agents of the litigant, in a matter pending before the Supreme Court’.