Name Jackton Ojwang | ||
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Four Supreme Court judges indicted for misconduct
Jackton Boma Ojwang is a Kenyan lawyer and an Associate justice of the Supreme Court of Kenya.
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Education
Justice Ojwang was born in 1950 in Migori County. He went to Homa Bay High School, sitting for his O-Levels in 1968. He then went to the Thika High School where he sat for his A-Level in 1970. He earned his undergraduate degree in Law at the University of Nairobi in 1974 and a master's degree at the same university in 1976.
He earned a PhD degree in comparative constitutional law at Downing College in 1981.
Justice Ojwang worked as a lecturer and served as the Dean of the School of Law at the University of Nairobi from 2000 to 2003. He was also a visiting associate professor of law at the J. Reuben Clark Law School in Brigham Young University.
In September 2015, Ojwang received a Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Nairobi, having successfully defended his thesis, titled The Unity of the Constitution and the Common Law. He became the first sitting Kenyan judge to receive a Doctor of Laws degree.
Judicial career
Ojwang was admitted as an advocate of the High Court of Kenya in September 1983. He joined the Judiciary of Kenya in 2003, serving as a high court judge in Nairobi and Mombasa until 2011.
In June 2012, Ojwang was among 5 Justices nominated to the Supreme Court of Kenya by the Judicial Service Commission, which had interviewed 25 applicants.
He was one of the six judges who dismissed the presidential election petition of March 30, 2013.
When Dr. Willy Mutunga retired from the Office of Chief Justice in June 2016, Justice (Prof) J. B. Ojwang was one of ten people who applied to replace him. He was initially left out of the shortlist and interview schedule prepared by the Judicial Service Commission, but was later invited to interview for the job following a constitutional court case in which the Judicial Service Commission was compelled to interview all applicants who had met the minimum statutory requirements for the job. He was interviewed but was overlooked for the job, with Court of Appeal Judge David Maraga receiving the nomination by the Commission.
At the conclusion of the 2017 presidential election petition, Justice Ojwang's rendered a dissenting opinion alongside Lady Justice Njoki Ndung'u, saying there was not enough evidence to meet the threshold to annul the Kenyan presidential election held on August 8th,2017.