The Supreme Court of Kenya in Nairobi.
I won’t belabour the point, but suffice it to say that Kenya’s problem isn’t lack of human and natural resources, or hard work by its citizens. No – the key problem is what Gen Z told the country. It’s lack of integrity in our leadership. President William Ruto publicly acknowledged this stark reality when he sent his Cabinet packing a month ago. I believe more heads will roll.
That said, the leadership doesn’t elect itself. It’s the hoi polloi who decide the men and women who will the lead the country every five years. So, when you point at leaders with one finger, remember the other four are pointing back at you. Only you – the hoi polloi – decide who rules you.
I ain’t blind. I know there’s often the “Chebukati Factor” in Kenyan elections where the national electoral body is accused of manipulating results. We know what Samuel Kivuitu, then head of Election Commission of Kenya, did in 2007. Our country almost went to hell in a handbasket.
I vividly remember President William Ruto, then the Eldoret North MP and an ODM leader, protesting futilely at the KICC against Mr Kivuitu’s dastardly manipulations. Mr Kivuitu himself was later heard to mutter that he didn’t know who won those elections.
The electoral commission, however, doesn’t rig every election. Citizens freely elect most MPs, senators, governors, and MCAs. It’s the common citizens who freely – and without coercion or fraud – elect the crooks.
I say this. As we cry “woe is me” because of bad leadership, we need to first look in the mirror. Our leaders are “us” because “we” elected them. Remember the admonition by French Philosopher Joseph de Maistre who famously opined that “in a democracy, the people end up with the government and leaders they deserve.”
To the disgruntled Gen Zs, I say this – organise to vote in 2027 or shut your beaks. That’s right – zip it if you can’t exercise your franchise wisely. Today, I am writing about legal paganism which I define as obsession with formalism sans substance. Legal pagans believe in the law as though it were some artifact in the museum of antiquities.
In truth, a pagan is a non-believer. She or he, cavorts with “Lucifer.” They say one thing, and then do another. They don’t mean what they say, and don’t say what they mean. They believe in nothing and are masters of manipulation and hypocrisy. Their “God” is someone like Donald Trump who holds the Bible upside down and pretends to be piously reading from it. They lack public shame and are driven purely by their voracious greed to squat in public office so they can bleed the public purse dry. For example, we know the salary of a governor, but yet most who have never owned a private business have built mansions galore. Gaudy, ugly, unseemly mansions everywhere.
This brings to me the tragicomedy of the thrice-impeached Meru Governor, one Kawira Mwangaza. I thought Mwangaza is Kiswahili for light, but alas, the fair lady has been dogged by nothing but pitch darkness. I can see someone fighting back if they are impeached once, or twice. But thrice? Please give me a break. The third time is where the dam breaks.
As they say, three strikes and you are out. Yet the stubborn Governor Mwangaza remains in public office after being tossed for the third time. I don’t care whether all the Meru MCAs are drunkards. Ms Mwangaza needs to either go, or force a dissolution of the county government. The dysfunction there is the riddle of absurdity.
No sooner had Governor Mwangaza’s impeachment been upheld by the Senate than she obtained a court order blocking her immediate ejection from office. As my friend Minority Leader Junet Mohamed would exclaim, “walalaaa!” by which he means “stupendously unbelievable!” Leaders must appreciate and internalise the concept of public shame.
Sometimes it’s not that a court of law has to find you guilty of a criminal transgression beyond the shadow of a doubt. No – the appearance of impropriety should be enough to cause one to throw in the towel. I beseech leaders to learn how to commit political hari-kari. We’ve seen it in Japan and other true democracies where leaders quit upon being defrocked by the public because of scandal.
I want to school my law colleagues in the Judiciary. Don’t indulge our politicians in their fancy of legal paganism. Judges must not aid and abet legal paganism. If a failed governor rushes to your court to avoid the political guillotine, please send him or her packing. You have the jurisprudential discretion to do so.
Technically, such a person has a right to seek judicial relief from political execution by the MCAs, but the judge has wiggle room to invoke Chapter Six of the Constitution and deny – on a prima facie basis – the frivolous claims of hanging on to office. Don’t issue judicial orders to save such a person.
Makau Mutua is SUNY Distinguished Professor and Margaret W. Wong Professor at Buffalo Law School, The State University of New York. @makaumutua.
