Kenya is now ripe for fourth liberation

The worst part about human rights work is when, after mourning one killing, you get back home only to discover that another person has been executed. Willie Kimani may well be the last lawyer to be tortured and killed by Kenyan police, but he certainly won’t be the last Kenyan.

Someone said there are many things worth living for, a few things worth dying for, but nothing worth killing for. Try telling that to Kenyan police. Human Rights Watch just released a detailed report of 34 more disappearances in Nairobi and the northeastern region in the past two years. But that is not news and will not elicit street protests—they were Somalis and not lawyers or politicians, after all.

There are two or three generations of Kenyans who have fought gallantly for freedoms and human rights in this country. A high percentage of them were in the same hotel room on Monday night to pay tribute to retired Chief Justice Willy Mutunga. The convenor was the Kenya Human Rights Commission, the spiritual home and Alma Mater of just about every human rights advocate around.

GREY HAIRS

Many of those heroes now carry grey hairs, potbellies or gammy limbs and would find it difficult to escape a police baton on the streets. All of them bear the wounds of battle and trauma without regret. Their greatest pain, however, must be to see Kenyans still being executed on a daily basis by police hired to protect them, and to witness politicians and their cronies looting the country’s coffers with the same impunity.

They could be forgiven for thinking that they wasted their bodies and time on a futile change project. But genuine activists don’t give up or retire, and Dr Mutunga told the assembled audience that Kenya is ripe for the fourth liberation: implementation of the Constitution of Kenya 2010. He insisted this is essential if Kenya is not to explode or implode. Grassroots activism, alternative leadership, the integrity chapter being implemented and the youth voice are the spaces for change in the country according to the former CJ.

Dr Mutunga still has a vision of change and will no doubt find a pertinent role to inspire and show leadership. He had a life before being Chief Justice and he does not need the trappings of public office to continue to influence. His integrity is a rare quality in public life and his rallying cry for a fourth liberation is a call to sanity, decency, accountability and respect for the values that underlie the Constitution.

A fourth liberation, then, is not merely about modernisation or the provision of more courts and services. It’s primarily a call to implement the preamble of the Constitution that recognises “the aspirations of all Kenyans for a government based on the essential values of human rights, equality, freedom, democracy, social justice and the rule of law”. A fourth liberation is the final piece in the jigsaw after independence, restoration of multiparty democracy and the promulgation of the Constitution. Kenya has the tools and the personnel, what is now required are the values that will guide, unite and inspire the nation. Lead that movement, ndugu Mutunga.

[email protected]; @GabrielDolan1