Uhuru has to begin whipping his wayward ministers back into line

This is one week that President Uhuru Kenyatta would prefer to forget. Maybe, if the attempts at damage control succeed, or when other crises bury the ones that have buffeted him so heavily, he may look at the events that occurred as a learning experience.

The first was the bombshell launched by the International Criminal Court’s Office of the Prosecutor, which did not make any sense. Perhaps others may understand why the OTP released the dossier detailing what evidence would have been used to nail President Kenyatta; I don’t.

Unfortunately for the OTP, this “evidence” comes a month too late as the crimes against humanity charges have already been withdrawn.

Why then go to all the trouble to tell the world that the suspect could have been found guilty had the prosecution witnesses not been either compromised or eliminated?

Of what use, except for the purpose of saving face, was this dud bombshell launched? It could be that the OTP may reopen the charges against Mr Kenyatta at some future date — presumably when he is no longer president — but even that is likely to turn out to be so much hot air.

I do not presume to speak on behalf of those individuals adversely mentioned in connection with the ICC cases, nor can I claim with any authority that there was no hanky panky in the matter of crucial witnesses.

However, it was the duty of the OTP to protect its witnesses and if it failed, it has no business blaming anyone else. There is a grave danger of a prosecution gone horribly wrong turning into persecution.

The other event which will continue haunting the President for the foreseeable future was the gassing of school children by police for protesting the grabbing of their playing field.

I have no intention of going into the details about the idiotic occurrence which depicted the government as intolerant and thoughtless. However, if nobody was convinced the National Police Service requires urgent reform, this business of using tear-gas on eight-year-olds should serve as a graphic reminder.

Only an imbecile or someone under Nazi-like instructions to obey orders without question can actually harm a child, especially in the glare of TV cameras. What happened to common sense and decency?

WILL TO FIGHT CORRUPTION

Secondly, this outrage is an indication that corruption in every sphere of public life has never abated. It is my contention that despite repeated official declarations of intent to fight graft, we have not even started on the journey.

No government since independence has had the will to fight corruption in all its manifestations, and the Jubilee government does not seem to have the guts either.

However, something useful may come out of the whole sordid affair, and that is, President Kenyatta must start cracking the whip in earnest if he wants to retain the good-will of the millions of those who elected him and lure to his side the millions who didn’t.

It is whispered that his illustrious father, Mzee Kenyatta, used to literally whip his ministers back into line in his Gatundu office. We shall probably never know the truth unless his victims who are still alive confess it, a very unlikely prospect.

As for former President Moi, his ministers went to work with trepidation for a simple reason; they knew they could be fired whenever they displeased him, and it used to happen in time for the 1pm news. Nobody likes to wake up in the morning a mighty minister and go home in the evening with his tail between his legs.

Former President Kibaki had a gentler method; he allegedly used a few choice epithets on his ministers; pumbavu being his favourite. Sometimes when pushed too far, he reportedly would refer to chicken droppings, for he never suffered fools gladly.

President Kenyatta does not have those choices open to him; he cannot use a bakora on his Cabinet Secretaries, nor can he fire them at whim, for it is a rather tedious job hiring their replacements without whole tribes crying foul.

However, he has no choice but to kick ass — hard. There is no use for him to complain in public that his ministers have failed the country; he must show he is in charge. He must not try to please everyone. As the hackneyed phrase goes, you cannot make an omelette without breaking some eggs.