Veteran journalist and political activist Tony Gachoka has filed a petition at the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) seeking the removal from office of three Court of Appeal judges
In the petition, Gachoka wants Patrick Kiage, Aggrey Muchelule, and Lydia Achode removed from offices on grounds of gross misconduct in their handling of matters connected to the government’s proposed sale of a 15 per cent stake in Safaricom PLC.
Gachoka on Monday escorted his co-petitioner, Samuel Kahara Macharia, to Pensions House in Nairobi, where the petition was formally lodged at the JSC.
Macharia is himself a petitioner in one of the consolidated High Court constitutional challenges against the share sale in which he named the National Treasury, the Privatization Commission, the Capital Markets Authority, the Attorney General, and Vodafone Group PLC as respondents.
The move marks a significant escalation in a months-long campaign by Gachoka and allied petitioners to block the divestiture of the government’s 15 per cent stake in Safaricom to a South African firm, a transaction expected to raise an estimated Sh204.3 billion.
The JSC petition is directly linked to Court of Appeal Civil Application No. E261 of 2026, in which the Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury and Economic Planning and five others are seeking to overturn conservatory orders that blocked the national government from selling Safaricom shares.
Gachoka had already put his concerns in writing before lodging the JSC petition.
Just days ago, he and nine other petitioners wrote to the President of the Court of Appeal seeking clarification over what they termed as an unusual alteration and fast-tracking of the State application.
In a letter through advocate Lempaa Suiyanla of Mugeria, Lempaa and Kariuki Advocates, they raised concerns over the scheduling of the case.
The petitioners said parties were initially served with a hearing notice indicating that the matter would be heard on June 29, 2026.
However, they were later informed of a change fixing it for June 24, and were subsequently served with another amended notice advancing the hearing further to June 18 before a three-judge bench constituted by the President of the Court of Appeal
“It was therefore with considerable surprise that the parties subsequently received an amended hearing notice indicating that the application would instead be heard on June 18 at 9am,” the letter stated, with the petitioners arguing that the abrupt changes had created “genuine concern and apprehension” among the parties.
The petitioners also sought assurances that there exists no predetermined outcomes in Civil Application No. E261 of 2026 and that the matter shall be determined solely on the law and the merits presented by the parties.”
The High Court extended orders restraining the government from selling its 15 per cent shares in Safaricom to Vodacom South Africa, pending determination of three petitions, with a three-judge bench appointed by Chief Justice Martha Koome saying serious fundamental and constitutional issues had been raised.
The petitioners have argued that the proposed transaction would effectively reduce the State to a minority shareholder at 20 per cent in Safaricom, while granting the foreign-owned Vodacom Group controlling majority shares at 55 per cent.
They have further contended that the transaction implicates Kenya’s digital sovereignty and the financial flows underpinning M-Pesa.
Gachoka and other petitioners have also argued that the proposed transaction lacked transparency and was not subjected to independent evaluation, verification, or due diligence to ensure a lawful and competitive sale process, and that allowing the sale to proceed before the petitions are resolved could cause irreversible harm, including the loss of citizen control, dilution of sovereignty, and exposure of sensitive national and personal data.
The litigation has produced multiple satellite applications.
The High Court earlier dismissed applications by Gachoka and Prof. Fredrick Onyango Ogola seeking to bar Senior Counsel John Ohaga and advocate Andrew Mukite Musangi from representing parties in the proceedings, with a three-judge bench finding that the applicants had failed to prove any actual or perceived conflict of interest.
The JSC is the constitutional body mandated under Article 168 of the Constitution to receive and process complaints against judges, with removal proceedings triggered upon a finding of gross misconduct or incompetence.
The petition against Justices Kiage, Muchelule, and Achode has not yet been responded to by the named judges or the Court of Appeal.
