Reformist Chief Justice should expect vicious fight from Nyaoism remnants

Don’t Be Fooled, Reject those Nyayos. That was the title of a tract that landed University of Nairobi law lecturer Willy Mutunga in President Daniel arap Moi’s dreaded dungeons in 1982.

Dr Mutunga was arrested as part of the crackdown that marked the return of detention without trial and a near-decade of brutal dictatorship.

Anyone who deviated even slightly from the straight and narrow path of Nyayoism was marked by the secret police and the thought police for imprisonment, torture, or even disappearance.

Today the one-time dissident, enemy of development, disgruntled element, and whatever other appellation he would have rated during the Nyayo kleptocracy is candidate for Chief Justice.

In a transparent and open process fully open to public view, Dr Mutunga, the only outsider, beat a host of serving judges to win nomination on the back of a solid academic pedigree, stellar reformist credentials, and unblemished moral probity.

The Judicial Service Commission probably reckoned that no serving judge in a deeply tainted Judiciary would appreciate the need to own and drive urgent reforms.

Hence, also, the nomination of another outsider, Ms Nancy Barasa, for Deputy Chief Justice.

The orphans and remnants of Nyayoism are not amused and are already signalling that they will mount a vicious fight-back to ensure a more pliable nomination for the top job in the Kenya Judiciary.

For them it is not merely that Dr Mutunga is an outsider, but one who presents a clear and present danger to their very existence.

Reactionary elements from the Moi regime have thrived and prospered in President Kibaki’s administration because a conservative mind-set would not countenance real change.

The barons of mega-corruption, economic sabotage, and crimes against the people were pleasantly surprised to find that the transition from the Moi to the Kibaki regimes did not at all upset their comfort zones.

They had the political protection and a friendly Judiciary that would not demand an accounting for their obscene wealth, land-grabbing, and promotion of ethnic cleansing as a political tool.

They simply cannot countenance a Chief Justice who might want to create a brave and independent Judiciary that will operate without paying obeisance to the mighty and powerful.

Dr Mutunga should brace himself for brutal challenges from the political forces that will muster against him all their strength in Parliament, the Executive wing, the courts, and even the reactionary clergy. It will not be pleasant.

What might sound like a petty and sterile debate over Dr Mutunga favouring an ear stud will be amplified to ear-shattering screams touching on every facet of his personal life and beliefs, religion, philosophy, social and political activism, and probably even his preferred diet or tipple.

The first salvos have already been fired, and it will be no holds barred. The lords of impunity will always fight hard, strong, vicious, and downright dirty.

----------------------------

Parliament has appointed some committee to look into the escalating cost of living.

The members will, no doubt, earn extravagant allowances, over and above their existing emoluments, for doing their work.

I can bet my last cent that one of the first orders of business will be to arrange junkets to London, Dubai, Johannesburg, New York, Paris, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and other pricey locales to study the cost of living in the shopping capitals of the world.

The suffering Kenyan masses will, of course, be handed the tab.

I honestly fail to see where this latest thing will be going, unless it is serious enough to look into a bloated and high-maintenance ruling class as a key contributor to poverty.

One big danger is that the MPs might come up with populist, but dangerous and half-baked prescriptions, which, if implemented, can only lead to economic devastation.

The government cannot dictate international oil prices, so intervention here might be limited to reviewing usurious taxation and getting rid of the political buccaneers muscling their way into the supply chain.

Neither can it defy economic fundamentals and decree doubling of wages, or reduction in food prices, house rents, school fees, or matatu fares.

No doubt there is an urgent need to look at ways of cushioning the people against rising prices, but that is a task beyond the ken of politicians looking only to the next election.

mgaitho@ke.nationmedia.com