I often welcome a hearty laugh when I watch news on television or read newspapers; because what I see and read is usually so exasperatingly infuriating and depressing that anger and frustration simply overwhelm me. So I had a hearty chuckle the other day when I found out that Martha Karua has resigned I thought, it was delicious irony. I also laughed watching the media cover the manner in which Martha Karua was projected as a supreme candidate in 2012 election. From resignation and to be elected!!! Its going to be an interesting transition!!!
But then ,to some she happens to be a voice against corruption in Kenya something which she has been part of it for quite sometime now from the old shocks to the current waves. But the big quiz here is she really worth the kind of the information she is sending to Kenyans? I hope time and history will have the key of that quiz. Is she worth Kenya’s new megastar of anti-corruption.? I thank her for taking her wounds out of the parliament pavements. But to many, they will keep on carry her scars inside their hearts souls for years to come. Unbearable memories! I have the deepest sympathies for her and his family; but I have always wondered if the Kenyan judiciary, and the media, were going commodiously soft on her since she was controlling it or because of her background.
So my first thoughts when she resigned , was a mild sense of relief that maybe we are moving in the right direction. That maybe we, as Kenyans, we are heading for a galvanised situation when corrupt ministers can no longer utilize their contemptible clout or specious charisma to stay in power, get elected and announce that they have been vindicated by the ‘court of the people’ – the ultimate authority in a democracy. But before I could even think further along those lines, I remembered the putrescent scores of corrupt ministers who were openly making a mockery of the Kenyan democracy especial with the current Grand Coalition Government ,from maize scam to free Aids store fodders with the Kenyan judiciary looking on helplessly.
I checked with my editorial team and found to my horror that criminals are serious and leading candidates in every major Ministry in Kenya; and that they belong to virtually every political party. Even more shocking, corrupt/criminals who have been convicted by “peoples courts” are spending time behind the parliament pavements, and who are not allowed to contest elections are planning to enter into our Parliament through the back door by having their wives, daughters and other close relatives contest the elections. In fact, I am still finding it hard to digest the fact that many so called corrupt/criminal politicians with serious allegations of being in league to terrorize the economy are also serious players this time. God really help Kenya, I say.
I am simply appalled at how Kenya’s electoral and judicial system has allowed this to happen and how much worse continues to happen. I squarely blame both the political class and the Kenyan judiciary for this intolerable failure that threatens to destroy Kenya. My administration colleagues have done much research and told me that both the Election Commission and the High Court in fact wanted to take steps that would prevent corrupt /criminals ministers or M.P from contesting elections. The tipping point for them was when, back in 2002, all political parties conspiratorially and concomitantly got together and passed a law that actually allowed corrupt/criminals to contest elections. Many thereon say that Kenyan judiciary tried its best and it should not be blamed.
I totally disagree. I think the Kenyan judiciary and the political class are both guilty of depriving the average Kenyan citizen of even basic ordinary choices. Economics says that crime too is ruled and infected by incentive – that is, the less the chances of you being punished, the more the chances of you committing a crime. The rancid Kenyan political class is aware of this delightful incentive. And the pallid Kenyan judiciary has generously not bothered to redress the balance. “Look at Anglo-Leasing scandal”,. “Goldenberg scandal”, some were being involved but they were left free as our Laws are soft when it comes in Law makers which encourage them to break even more. And you have puissant Kenyan courts still trying to decide if ‘X’ ,’Y’ and ‘Z’should let free of corruption and contest the elections! It is only in the last few years that sustained pressure from civil society of “people’s courts” has forced the judiciary to send even powerful people – including politicians – back home but to make matters more worse they are the people same people again who are ruling the current government, through backdoors and shoulders of the present Coalition Government.. Otherwise, it was simply a case after nauseant case of a corrupt/criminal politician benefiting election after election as cases dragged on in regrettably inefficacious courts.
The deeper problem is the Kenyan judiciary not making an example of rotten apples within its own suppurating system. We have been profanely embarrassed by public revelations that millions of shillings have been delivered to the houses of High Court judges. We have seen the peccant spectacle of a High Court judge facing impeachment. We have seen credible allegations of a top judicial officer passing orders to favour his family. We have seen the caustic provident fund scam in in our judiciary system where numerous judges – some now in High Court – have brazenly misused their powers. We have seen a licentious High Court judge enterprisingly exchange sexual favours for judicial orders. We have seen snappish judges protesting vehemently that they can’t declare their assets. And one thought Caesar’s wife should be above suspicion! We seem to have seen it all. And yet, where is the movement towards basic reforms in judiciary where the rotten apples could have been punished so severely that the ‘incentive’ system would have worked against malefic corruption and worse?
If even those opprobrious judicial officers facing serious allegations of corruption and crime can use the system to get away, what can one expect of pathologically corrupt/criminal politicians who anyway don’t make tall promises about sobriety and honesty?
Martha Karua is simply a small fry. The real bigger fry are continuing to make merry go-round at our expense. Civil society needs to tackle this twin menace most urgently if it wants a future for Kenya.
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