Re: Hooray! This Is What Separation of Powers Looks Like – From Afar!
By Dorcas S
The Deputy Attorney General at US DOJ Rod Rosenstein appointed former FBI Director Robert S. Mueller as Special Counsel to investigate allegations of Russia’s meddling in the 2016 US Elections and “any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump…..as well as other matters that “may arise directly from the investigation” – a sweeping mandate if ever there was one.
The news sent tremors through the Trump Administration with many scrambling to “lawyer up” in anticipation of what is usually an exhaustive, relentless and intrusive investigation. The pending investigation also prompted some here in the diaspora to proclaim rather giddily that “this is what democracy looks” even as they lauded the “exacting display of separations of power between co-equal branches of government – Judiciary, Executive and Legislature.” Kenyans, who according to a Sept. 2012 poll conducted for BBC by the polling firm GlobeScan/PIPA, have the highest percentage of GOP supporters among the 21 countries/nationals surveyed, were unusually vociferous, especially on social media.
The same people who in their support of Mr. Trump, agitated for a “strong leader”; a “benevolent dictator” who would “drain the swamp” suddenly flipped the script and were now lauding the virtues of “independent co-equal branches of government and respect for the democratic process and wheels of justice”. It was indeed a flip-flop that even DJT, the man at the epicenter of the scandal, would have been proud of.
This new-found love of separation of powers and “equality before the law regardless” by WanaKenya piqued my curiosity:
Would AG Githu Muigai recuse himself from a scandal implicating Uhuru Kenyatta?
Would he appoint a special counsel to investigate Mr. Kenyatta for say, colluding with Uganda to manipulate the general elections in Kenya? How about for using the Office of the President to feather the nest of his family – you know, conflict of interest?
Would Githu Muigai subpoena bank records from Sundales International to “follow the money” in the KSh.5bn missing from Afya House? What of the probity of the First Lady’s “Beyond Zero Initiative”?
Okay so I realized how silly and Pollyannaish my thinking was once I started listing issues Jeff Sessions would absolutely investigate – in the US. Of course we know what Githu Muigai, Jeff Session’s Kenyan counterpart has done in scandals implicating Mr. Kenyatta – NOTHING!
Frankly I am not surprised given the hypocrisy of Republicans and Jubilants – two groups saturated with conservative born-again “Christians” and have an unmistakable penchant for pontificating morality while “eating meat” i.e. do as I say, not as I do.
You gotta love the cognitive dissonance and compartmentalization of Jubilants!
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