Kidero, Waiguru and evacuation: too much nonsense for one week

A few years ago, during a constitutional law conference, the late Prof Okoth-Ogendo told me in low tones and with a cheeky smile: “I've never heard so much nonsense in my life." I was taken aback for I thought he had lived it all, at his age one must heard it all.

But alas, I was wrong for nonsense is never enough…and nonsense has been a pervading feature this past week.

The Chinese offered Heaven, devolution and Nairobi City are stuck in Purgatory with threats of impeachment and invalidation, and Hell fell upon unsuspecting British tourists who were evacuated during a warlike operation to the surprise of all, including diplomats and perhaps even supposed terrorists.

I will not enter into the Chinese loans that promise Heaven; to me this is unknown financial territory.

If we turn to Purgatory, a place of expected suffering, we find many agonising souls. The most prominent of them are Evans Kidero, a victim of legal uncertainly, and Anne Waiguru, a victim of ethnic certainty.

Evans Kidero’s case is currently before the Supreme Court and it should not be discussed here. 

Anne Waiguru’s case is complex. The problem is legal, but ethnicity has turned it political. From the legal point of view, Waiguru has the power to dismiss the Director of the NYS. This power was given to her long time ago, ever since the National Youth Service Act was enacted in 1965.

A “WOMAN OF CHARACTER”

But this power should now be exercised according to the Constitution, which in Article 236 says: “A public officer shall not be…dismissed, removed from office, demoted in rank or otherwise subjected to disciplinary action without due process of law.”

Waiguru defended her case arguing that the transfer was made through the central posting unit, together with 11 civil servants from other ministries. As Macharia Gaitho says, the transfer was not effected by Waiguru but by the Chief of Staff and Head of Public Service, Joseph Kinyua.

Anne Waiguru is a woman of character. She is handling a gigantic ministry with collapsed huge ministries from the previous regime: Planning, Local Governments, Public Service, Special Pro-grammes, Youth Affairs, Gender, Northern Kenya… Few people have the guts, capacity and organisational skills to run such a monster ministry.

The problem is not managerial. If it were, Parliament would be asking for Rugut’s key perfor-mance indicators, track record or scorecard to put together their case. They seem uninterested, and nobody has asked for these indicators from Rugut or Gor Semelang’o or even Rugut’s suc-cessor, Githinji.

The problem is not only legal or procedural. If the problem were only procedural, then Rugut should have gone to court and seek redress.

Sadly, the problem is deeper. Parliament is trying to cure an ethnically perceived problem with a dose of the same medicine; an ethnic impeachment and an ethnic rehabilitation by appointing the right ethnic person. This is Waiguru’s Purgatory.

US WARNING “MORE SCANDALOUS”

Finally, Hell was delivered to the unsuspecting British tourists who were forcibly evacuated from Kenya. Who did it? Why? It is a mystery. Christian Turner, the High Commissioner in Kenya, has categorically stated that the UK Government did not order the evacuation and did not forbid its citizens to travel to Kenya. Other ambassadors have also disassociated their government from such travel warnings.

As a matter of fact, Turner is right. The travel advisory issued by the UK restricts its warnings to Mombasa, part of the coastal area, Eastleigh and the border with Somalia. Conversely, the US travel warning is more scandalous. Any American visitor can come close to qualifying as a war veteran.

This has been the US situation with regards to Kenya since 1998. The most shocking bit is that according to this travel warning Kenya is practically more dangerous than Israel, where the advisory repeatedly states that millions of American tourists safely visit Israel every year. By the use of language, it places Kenya almost at par with the Gaza strip. Truth be told, this seems disproportionate.

I was invited to attend a book launch in Mombasa last weekend. I was arriving as tourists left in a frenzy. The visit was wonderful. My host took me to see the most “dangerous” sites. I will always cherish in my memory the joy of having got a thrill out of Mombasa’s warmth and friendship during a severe travel warning.

It was the same old, beautiful and seasoned Mombasa I have always known. Then I thought, Okoth-Ogendo was right. This week, like it happened at that conference back in 2008, we have heard a lot of nonsense, which is the divorce between reality and opinion, law and politics. All in one week!

Dr Franceschi is the Dean of Strathmore Law School.  [email protected]  Twitter:@lgfranceschi