By Kenyatta O via Facebook
As CJ Dr. Willy Mutunga convenes a JSC this morning to discuss bribery allegation against Justice Tunoi, I am left bewildered by what goes on in the judiciary, especially high up at the Court of Appeal and The Supreme Court.
My first encounter with our judicial system was in the year 2001 and our good lawyer Eric Mutua was coming up in court against the late Mutula Kilonzo, just imagine. The case was before Kasanga Mulwa and my pal Mwengi Mutuse quipped in a Kenyan way that “hii ni kesi ya wakamba”. The Kambanization of the case was just by default because we had TJ K’ajwang’ assisting Mutua- I am going to talk about tribalism. This is also the time I got a brief tutorial on the meaning of that statue of a naked man holding a water logged fish outside the court.
The law is supposed to be naked- be presented as the truth that it is. Even when you have been arrested or subjected to it like that fish, it is not the end of everything. It is supposed to preserve you alive as you wait for the ruling; in other words, justice should not just be done but must be seen to be done.
Waititu’s petition against Kidero had a pattern that may not be news in Kenya. At the Court of Appeal, Justice Warsame (who I cannot decipher his tribe) dissented while his two colleagues, Justices GBM Kariuki and Patrick Kiage were in agreement in nullifying the governor’s election. A Kisii and Kikuyu backed Mr. Waititu. This may not make sense until the next level.
At the Supreme Court, a whole constellation of tribes in Smoking Wanjala, JB Ojwang’, Mohammed Ibrahim and Tunoi overturned the Court of Appeal’s ruling but Njoki Ndung’u, the only Kikuyu in the team stood with “one of her own” and dissented.
This pattern might look innocent and circumstantial but looked behind my post last evening on our greed and its manifestations, this is one of them – tribalism. Does this really show that justice was done, even if it was done?
To fight corruption, we must fight tribalism. Tribalism and corruption have a symbiotic relationship that makes them feed on each other. As I said yesterday, if we cannot walk and chew gum, we can stop everything and sort this mess before it consumes us. For now “Punda Hajachoka”.
#GoodMorningKE
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