Kenya turning a new leaf in its political history

Lawyers at the Supreme Court on September 2, 2022.

Lawyers at the Supreme Court on September 2, 2022. Being in a place where we have court cases to express disagreement with results, rather than large-scale violence, shows progress.

Photo credit: Jeff Angote | Nation Media Group

What you need to know:

  • The media must continue their important role of explaining the court proceedings in simpler language.
  • Outside of this, this evolving civic environment must be translated into all educational syllabi for our children to learn.
  • Regardless of who ends up as “The Fifth”, this is a time of progress for Kenya and the continent in general.

The pre-trial conference on Tuesday and the submissions by a crowd of lawyers in the Supreme Court for the momentous case challenging the results of the August 2022 presidential election have been the highlight of the week.

Seven judges of the apex court are going through numerous submissions, arguments and pages of documents on behalf of the people of Kenya, ideally to get a fair and just solution out of a polarising and challenging situation.

There are several reflections to share about the ongoing case, beginning with what a blessing it is to be part of history in the making through a court case.

This was not the situation in 2007 when tidal waves of violence erupted after the declaration of the presidential election results that took months to quell.

There are hundreds of thousands of Kenyans whose losses have never been recouped, who have never been able to go back to their homes, and whose lives have been irreversibly changed by bereavements, injuries and wider holistic trauma.

The justice from this, as well as from other cases of electoral violence since the 1990s, is long overdue and must be delivered now.

In addition, being in a place where we have court cases to express disagreement with results, rather than large-scale violence, shows progress.

This is also a time for the media to teach Kenyans about some complex matters.

Kenyan law, with its post-colonial hybridisation of British history and Latin terminology, has long been the sole province of the lawyer, who needs to complete a bachelor’s degree at the very least and then seek mandatory post-graduate qualification from the Kenya School of Law, to be called an advocate of the High Court. 

Limited access 

Due to the few opportunities, limited access to finances for learning and high entry cut-off points, this is not a career path that is open to many.

As such, the general court proceedings and the words used in courts are foreign to many Kenyans, apart from those who, unfortunately, find themselves in court as lawbreakers, witnesses or supporters of people going through court proceedings. 

The media must thus continue their important role of explaining these proceedings in simpler language, and further analysing them with the help of pundits and stakeholders, to keep Kenyans in the loop about these proceedings.

Outside of this, this evolving civic environment must be translated into all educational syllabi for our children to learn, and incorporated into ongoing analyses of Kenyan politics and statecraft.

If the bulk of information about these times remains locked in newspapers, there will be limited contextual understanding of our country’s evolution.

Regardless of who ends up as “The Fifth”, this is a time of progress for Kenya and the continent in general. As such, we should all be invested in these proceedings and their impending outcome.

The writer is a policy analyst. [email protected]