Nelson Havi has publicly called on fellow advocates to take a firm stand against Josephine Mongare, saying she should not continue handling court matters while facing bribery allegations.
According to him, lawyers should be ready to boycott her court if she continues presiding over cases.
He suggests that when advocates log into her virtual court sessions, they should first ask her to clear her name with the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission over the complaints that have been raised against her.
In his view, a judge who is facing serious investigations over bribery should not be in a position to make decisions that affect the rights and disputes of ordinary Kenyans.
Havi says his views are shaped by years of knowing the judge. He explains that he first met her in 2017 at events organized by Federation of Women Lawyers in Kenya, where she served as chair.
During that period, he says he supported the organization with both time and financial contributions amounting to hundreds of thousands of shillings.
He says part of his involvement was to understand the people within the legal community better.
Through those interactions, he says he came to know Mongare well.
While he describes her as someone who appears friendly and approachable, he claims that in his opinion she lacks strong courtroom skills.
He also says that some people who once worked under her or trained with her had expressed similar concerns about her performance in legal practice.
Over the past two years, Havi has appeared before her in several cases as an advocate. He says that during hearings she often seems polite and knowledgeable.
However, he claims the problems appear when she writes her rulings or judgments.
According to him, many of those decisions are brief, sometimes only a few pages long. He argues that they rarely examine the evidence from both sides in detail and often do not refer to legal statutes, textbooks, or previous court decisions.
Because of this, he believes the judgments appear to rely heavily on personal opinion rather than detailed legal reasoning.
The relationship between the two reportedly became tense in 2024 after Havi wrote an article linking corruption to the killing of a magistrate inside a courtroom by a police officer after a bribery deal allegedly went wrong.
When he later appeared before Mongare, he says she criticized him strongly, accusing him of disrespecting the memory of the deceased officer.
Havi responded by asking her to focus only on the case before the court and not give him personal lectures.
From that moment, he claims their professional relationship became strained.
He says that after the exchange he began losing cases that he handled before her.
According to him, a mutual acquaintance later told him privately that the judge had decided to make him “pay” for his remarks. Havi says he responded by promising that he would push for her removal from the bench.
One of the disputes he refers to involved clients from Gikomba market. He says those clients later told him they believed the outcome of their case may have been influenced by the tension between him and the judge.
They were advised to hire another lawyer who might have a better relationship with the court, and Havi says he handed over the matter without protest.
Havi further alleges that in the same dispute, a person was sent to collect five million shillings connected to the matter. He claims the money did not fully reach the judge, which allegedly led to a harsh decision against the clients.
He also says he raised complaints about the matter with the Judicial Service Commission, but the commission later cleared Mongare of wrongdoing.
Despite that outcome, Havi says he has continued to pursue the issue through legal action and public statements.
He has filed a lawsuit involving Mongare and Alfred Mabeya, whom he accuses of being closely connected to the situation.
His former clients, he says, have since returned to him for assistance in their legal battles.
More recently, the controversy has grown after claims emerged linking Mongare to an alleged attempt to obtain money from Raphael Tuju through former judge Joseph Mutava.
Havi says the development did not surprise him because he believes it reflects a wider pattern within the judiciary.
Havi maintains that the most immediate action should come from advocates themselves.
He is urging lawyers to log into Mongare’s court sessions and insist that she first address the bribery allegations before continuing with any hearings.
Public accountability within the justice system is necessary if trust in the courts is to be maintained.
