Makau Mutua: Why Ruto should sack Linturi

Sometimes it’s very hard to be a Kenyan. Really hard. This past week was one of those times.

Like other normal Kenyans, I watched helplessly as MPs spat in the faces of voters. Then I thought – wait, it’s the voters who elected the rogue MPs in the first place. That’s when I summoned my intellectual hat and channelled Alexis de Tocqueville and Joseph De Maistre in a quote attributed to both.

They opined that “in a democracy, people get the government they deserve” . That’s what the sordid saga of Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mithika Linturi taught us. But all isn’t lost.

President William Ruto can guillotine Mr Linturi to spare the country more conniptions. He holds the sword of last resort. The point isn’t even whether Mr Linturi is corrupt, abuses office, or acts with impunity in violation of the Constitution. No.

We are way past that question. In political stricto sensu, Mr Linturi would’ve been decapitated in any society with a sense of public shame.

At stake here isn’t the criminal standard of culpability which requires proof beyond reasonable doubt, or even the lower bar in civil cases of the preponderance of the evidence, also known as balance of probabilities. Nyet.

The simple standard is a well-known yardstick of public morality. That is, it’s a duck if it quacks like one. In Japan or Western Europe, Mr Linturi would’ve fallen on his sword to save his boss the embarrassment.

But I am too generous to write as though Mr Linturi was the judge in his own cause. He wasn’t because that would be a negation of the negation, or Mr Linturi placing himself above the law. That’s not what the Constitution of Kenya provides.

Mr Linturi was the accused in the dock in Parliament facing certain impeachment.

The entire country, even the chickens in the remotest village, had concluded that Mr Linturi bore primary liability for the fake fertiliser con. He bore that responsibility by law and political hierarchy. Our farmers were faked.

Mr Linturi either faked them or failed to prevent the fakery. The difference doesn’t matter. His political head must be chopped off. No excuses.

I noticed one regrettable factoid about the vote letting Mr Linturi off the impeachment hook. The vote was partisan. Kenya Kwanza voted one way; Azimio the other. It was KK that gave Mr Linturi a getout-of-jail card.

That’s putrid politics. 

Impunity

Partisanship should stop at the shores of fighting corruption and impunity.

It’s in Kenya’s national interest to dispatch any official who is corrupt because that’s been the country’s Achilles Heel. If you want to know why Kenya isn’t where South Korea or Malaysia is today, look no further than at our leadership since independence. Where they fought corruption without pity – including public executions – Kenya has never seen a thief it didn’t want to coddle.

That’s been our undoing. Why elect MPs who don’t know their job, or can’t think beyond their bellies? I’ve seen allegations that big money changed hands to torpedo the case. I wouldn’t be surprised because of the many Judases who plant their fat rears in that “august” house. Forgive me if I puke as I type that word.

As philosophers de Tocqueville and De Maistre correctly divined, Kenyans have in the era of multipartyism elected mostly crooks.

They deserve to be robbed blind. Don’t tell me I am blaming victims.

Who forced you to vote for corrupt MPs – most who broke the law in cahoots with the electoral body – to get to Bunge? For a measly several hundred shillings you sold your vote. That’s why sobbing voters should shut up.

You made your bed. Lie in it without bitterness. But because I love voters because most of them are ignorant and gullible, I have one possible solution. Remember Winston Churchill’s chilling observation – the best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.

Voters haven’t seen feet of theirs they didn’t want to shoot. They do it every time. That’s why I don’t idolise the masses.

Look at the bulk of white Republican voters lining up like sheep behind Donald Trump, the most dangerous man to ever run for US President.

Or Russians genuflecting before Vladmir Putin, the dictator. Is all hope lost for humanity? Is there no way out? While President Ruto has to keep his allies happy, there are limits to how much water he should carry for them.

Several of his appointees, especially in the Cabinet, ought to be gone. Yesterday. They are unpopular even in their home counties. Mr Linturi is one of them. He’s baggage the President needs not carry.

Every President arrives at a fork on the road, and must decide whether to go left or right. For Mr Ruto, the fork is here with some of his political appointees. He needs to swing to unsheathe his sword and cut off a few heads. Call it a political sacrifice.

He must do it.