When former President Uhuru Kenyatta refused to nominate her and thirteen other people, a High Court judge said that she was considering bringing a slander lawsuit against him.
In 2015, the Judicial Service Commission, under the leadership of Chief Justice Willy Mutunga at the time, nominated Asenath Ongeri and other officers to serve as High Court justices.
However, Uhuru merely stated that they had “integrity issues that had not been resolved” and declined to have them gazetted and sworn in.
No further rationale was given.
“I didn’t anticipate what followed. The President refused to appoint all 14 nominated candidates for judgeship. I was among the 14 unfortunate ones,” she writes in her book The Making of a Judge.
But on May 14, 2015, after waiting, the 14 would be quickly called to State House for their swearing-in.
Ongeri claims that Uhuru’s generalization tarnished the reputation she had earned thru diligence.
“The republic’s fourth president undoubtedly committed slander by casting doubt on our moral character and claiming that we lacked integrity. In the book, Ongeri states, “No one has ever explained to me what integrity problem I had that led the fourth President to humiliate us so much.”
Rumors accompanied the claim, which alarmed her. “I recalled the terrifying rumor I had heard … that all judges and judicial officers were to be removed from office after the new constitution was promulgated.”
She adds that despite the violation of her rights, she decided to forgive.
Shakespeare famously remarked that when you take away someone’s reputation, you take away something that makes them poor but does not make you rich. I decided against suing the fourth president. Instead, I forgave him. Ongeri took solace in the knowledge and clarity of her conscience that she was not dishonest.
In 1988, Justice Ongeri became a member of the bar. Before entering the legal system as a District Magistrate II (Professional) in 1989 and eventually becoming a chief magistrate, she was State Counsel from 1988 to 1989.
Ongeri, who had been moved to the Nyahururu Law Courts as chief magistrate, eventually received the news of her appointment after waiting “for what had seemed like eternity.”
My spouse went to fetch a truck to transport my bags while I was parking. Around this time, a friend called. Her odd style of addressing me was “Honorable Lady Justice Asenath Ongeri!”
