THE POLITICAL ANIMAL FARM

    The dice is cast. From all indications, it is clear that Deputy Chief Justice, DCJ, Nancy Baraza’s goose has been cooked and an exit from her post is imminent. The president is unlikely to disapprove the Justice Augustino Ramadhani led- commission’s recommendation to relieve her of her duties as the country’s DCJ. Times are fast changing and upholding the law is the most inevitable of tasks. Let us face it. Even before the commission appointed by the president to investigate the Village Market saga, pitting the now beleaguered Nancy Baraza against a modest security guard,  Rebecca Kerubo, the whole nation was baying for Baraza’s blood! The mob justice was unleashing its fury on the very person who is charged with the job of fighting it and strengthening the rule of law.

    Supreme Court judge, Justice Mohammed Ibrahim, Court of Appeal Judge, Roselyn Nambuye, fell short of the integrity requirements for these offices. Appellate judges, Samuel Bosire, Riaga Omollo and Emmanuel O’kubasu were also declared unfit. Such is the enormity of the integrity hurdle under the new law. Renowned judges like Justice Samuel Bosire, Justice Nyamu and others have all failed by the wayside. Many others are awaiting the fate of appeals that they have launched. The same axe has felled Nancy Baraza

These are some of the far reaching implications that Chapter Six of the Constitution on leadership and integrity, has caused. Integrity is the latest in-thing in leadership and it is bound to cut-short the dreams of many. Every aspiring holder of a public office, from the Judiciary, the police and the political class must pass this latest exam in town! But it is in the political arena whereby double standards are coming into play. 

     Legislators in the August house are vetting candidates for public offices and laying their private lives bare, with endless and probing cross-examinations and interviews. However, the same legislators are not ready to face the same, going by the mutilations that the Leadership and Integrity Bill has been subjected to.

The cabinet last week deleted sections of this Bill, which seeks to set standards for those seeking elective posts. Amendments that greatly weaken the Bill were adopted. Top of these changes is the thrashing out of the requirement that those seeking elective posts be vetted. Clauses that require all aspirants and other state officers to declare their wealth, income, assets and liabilities before they are allowed to occupy these offices have also been chopped off. Double standards cannot get any better than this. We have Parliamentary committees that have vigorously vetted men and women of integrity, asked them embarrassing questions such as their sexual orientation, yet the same politicians are not willing to be grilled the same way.

   This Bill is apparently spelling Armageddon to our political class who are still living in the yesteryears that best describe disregard for the rule of law. We may have voted in the new law, but its implementation path has been treacherous. Old habits die hard and our politicians have been suffocated by decades of the disregard for the rule of law, and these spirited efforts against these demands on integrity were always bound to arise.

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    These events have rekindled memories of George Orwell’s Animal Farm.  In this allegorical work, seven commandments governed the animals and the most important rule was that all animals were equal. When Old Major, the old bear on the Manor Farm dies, two young pigs, Snowball and Napoleon take over but sadly manipulate the rules to suit their desires. Napoleon and his charges chase Snowball away and they took over the reins. Rules are consequently bent to the advantage of the ruling class. For example, No animal shall sleep in bed is changed to No animal shall sleep in bed with sheets, after the pigs are discovered sleeping in the old farmhouse. No animal shall drink alcohol is changed to No animal shall drink alcohol to excess, after they discover the farmer’s whiskey. The double standards that have characterized the execution of this Bill are reminiscent of Orwell’s work.

    The Integrity Bill has been chopped off of the moral and ethical benchmarks for aspirants, much to the convenience of a political class that is apparently allergic to integrity and moral values. It is an open secret that our politics need a massive clean-up. This is what the Leadership and Integrity Bill was meant to do, until this tragic turn of events! It will be politically correct to say that the political class championed for a law that they knew so little about. It is now dawning on them that it is not all that bed of roses as they had initially thought.

   With this latest show of disregard to the seemingly new and daunting demands of the new law, even the corrupt may still vie for high office.

Just another case of the Animal Farm playing out in the Kenyan political arena!