Will merchants of impunity let Mutunga do his job?
I am worried – very worried – about my mentor Chief Justice Willy Mutunga. Street “chatter” suggests that CJ Mutunga’s life could be in danger. As governments are wont to say, there’s no specific threat.
But – and this is huge – CJ Mutunga had better watch his back. That’s because he’s making some people really mad. Let me be very clear.
Unlike ODM Chief Whip Jakoyo Midiwo, I am not alleging an assassination plot. But – and this is common knowledge among the hoi polloi – Dr Mutunga has quickly become the “moral champion” of the poor.
He’s now the pivot for the new Constitution. He’s determined to clean up the State. That’s why he could be in mortal danger.
Ordinarily, the election year should be the “silly season”. But in Kenya, unlike in real democracies, the election cycle is a “deadly season”. Merchants of impunity are in a fierce battle for the control of state power, wealth and privilege.
They are intent on doing so by any means necessary. They have done so at every election. They even did so in 2002 when they “rebranded” themselves under Narc and hijacked the “revolution” against Kanu.
But this election year could be different. That’s because Dr Mutunga is a “game changer”. He has vowed to use Chapter Six of the Constitution – on Leadership and Integrity – to guillotine thieves, murderers, rapists and the craven. I can predict that very many prominent heads will roll.
There’s only one problem. Will the merchants of impunity let the CJ do his job? We don’t know the answer to that question. But we know this for sure – they’ll try to stop him by hook or crook.
Until CJ Mutunga took over, the Judiciary had been the Executive’s concubine. While that’s changing, I would say we are a long way from a clean Judiciary. Many judges and magistrates still live with the Executive in a state of concubinage.
It’ll take several years to get rid of them and change judicial culture. The truth is that the Kenyan Judiciary is still a snake pit. Many judges will try to blunt CJ Mutunga’s reformist guillotine. Will he survive the backlash?
History isn’t on CJ Mutunga’s side. Truly reformist Kenyan leaders didn’t live to see the fruits of their labour. Take the Mau Mau leader Dedan Kimathi as your starting point.
Fast-forward to Kanu’s leftist ideologue Pio Gama Pinto. They killed him in 1965 to make Kanu a right-wing party.
In 1975, JM Kariuki, the “people’s millionaire”, was assassinated. Perceived enemies of the power nomenklatura have often been eliminated. It didn’t matter they were not even progressive.
Think of wunderkind Tom Mboya who was eliminated in 1969, or Foreign minister Robert Ouko who was “rubbed out” in 1990. There are many others – some progressive, others less so.
They had one thing in common – they “stood in the way”. There’s one chilling example CJ Mutunga would do well to remember. One could draw parallels.
Kenya’s first black Chief Justice, Kitili Mwendwa, was forced to resign in 1971 after being suspected of involvement in a plot to overthrow Mzee Jomo Kenyatta.
He died in a suspicious road accident in 1985. A strangely conducted government inquest came up empty. His death is shrouded in mystery up to this day. Foul play was suspected, but never proved.
It was not lost on observers that Mr Mwendwa had been permanent secretary to Vice-President Jaramogi Oginga Odinga with whom he – and his wife Nyiva Mwendwa – remained close.
Dr Mutunga, like Mr Mwendwa, his predecessor, is from Kitui. Mr Mwendwa, like Dr Mutunga, was stubbornly independent.
Most pivotal election
Any Kenyan worth his or her name knows that this year’s election will be the most pivotal since the country’s independence. The left and right wings of Kenya’s political class will clash in a titanic electoral battle.
Prime Minister Raila Odinga leads his troops against the so-called Moi Orphans – the constellation of G7 leaders led by Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka, Eldoret North MP William Ruto, and Internal Security minister George Saitoti. Former ODM deputy leader Musalia Mudavadi ideologically falls in the G7 camp.
In this battle, only one thing is for sure; one side will win and the other will lose. This is the vortex into which CJ Mutunga has been thrust. One side in the contest won’t be happy with him.
But let me warn those who may want to do the CJ harm – back off. CJ Mutunga is a man who is universally loved and revered in Kenya. I have never met a soul who had an unkind word to say about Dr Mutunga.
Even those who don’t agree with him on some issues – like the ear stud – admit that he’s a kind and honourable man.
I know that the man can’t be bought. It’s not that I have tried it – but I’ve seen how the corrupt and mendacious become small in his presence.
None has had the courage to suggest any shenanigans. He’s simply incorruptible. This is no secret to Kenyans. An attempt on his life wouldn’t be accepted.
My view is that CJ Mutunga is the bridge between Kenya’s “today” and its “tomorrow”. I know it’s dangerous to pin a country’s hopes on one man or woman.
It’s true that no one makes a revolution alone. The great Mahatma Gandhi didn’t do it alone. Nor did the revered African-American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.
But they both inspired movements. As did Prof Wangari Maathai. Our chief justice is cut from a similar cloth. He’s a single man, but he carries the hopes of millions. He must live to take Kenya across that bridge.
Makau Mutua is Dean and SUNY Distinguished Professor at SUNY Buffalo Law School and Chair of the KHRC.
