Ng’ang’a, so what if Mutunga spoke to lawyers in Sheng?

I read with keen interest Ng’ang’a Mbugua’s chastisement of Dr Willy Mutunga in his piece titled ‘Nktest! What did the CJ just call the Supreme Court?’ (Saturday Nation, April 16, 2016), and concluded that he was just splitting hairs. I knew he was up to some mischief when he deliberately chose to ignore the fact that the Chief Justice, in the tweet he found so offensive, was in fact communicating in Sheng.

It was thus quite clear that Mr Mbugua regards Sheng with quite some contempt. The refusal by intellectuals like Mr Mbugua to acknowledge that Sheng has become a legitimate player in Kenya’s linguistic landscape perhaps explains why Kenya will never reap the full benefits of Sheng.

Today, Sheng, as a means of communication, is used and enjoyed by roughly 60 per cent of Kenyans.

Where Mr Mbugua sees the CJ bastardising language in his social media interactions, I see the president of the Supreme Court of Kenya trying to demystify the justice system and making it accessible to the common mwananchi.

That he chose to communicate in a language used by the average Kenyan, the CJ is telling us that he is one of us and that we need not be afraid of the institution he represents, seeing as it has come down to our level and speaks our language.

For the longest time, ordinary Kenyans saw the justice system as a tool of oppression; courts of law were places to be avoided at all costs.

Mbugua ought to appreciate that Dr Mutunga is not a conformist. Remember, this is the man who stubbornly refused to shed his earring when it was widely thought that such a thing would lead to his disqualification from the esteemed office.

I happened to be among invited guests early this year, when the CJ was admitting new lawyers to the bar. He tore the rule book by inviting, as guest speaker, Juliani, an artiste who performs exclusively in Sheng.

Before addressing the gathering, Juliani performed his popular hit Utawala and the newly-minted lawyers enthusiastically sang along. Talk of striking the right chords!

SHENG EXPERTS

Utawala addresses societal ills like corruption and tribalism. If Juliani, who rose from the slums of Dandora, can be invited by the Chief Justice to motivate a group of lawyers, you can only imagine how many more youths, from disadvantaged areas, he has inspired.

Well, if you want to know the power of Sheng just switch on your TV and count how many adverts are done in Sheng. They are legion. It would appear that the advertising industry has discovered what Sheng deniers have failed to see; the sheer effectiveness of the lingo.

When US president Barack Obama visited Kenya last year, he sought to connect with his audience by greeting them in Sheng; “niaje wasee!” Nigerians realised the cultural importance of their pidgin, and are now exporting it.

How else do you explain the Naija movies currently choking our TV stations? Today, Kenyans are struggling to learn this unique form of language from Nigeria so they can catch up.

On the literary front, Mr Mbugua will attest to the fact that literary heavyweight Chinua Achebe used Nigerian pidgin in his book A Man of the People, which would later become a set-book here in Kenya.

Former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo, in his latest memoirs My Watch, lists Nigerian pidgin as one of the languages he actively used in the course of his work as president, yet all we do is hate on our very own form of pidgin.

Reputable global universities like Harvard are researching and studying Sheng at PhD level, with scholars calling themselves Sheng experts, yet our scholars are busy pouring scorn on the language.

It is lazy for Kenyan language scholars to blame Sheng for the poor performance of English and Kiswahili in exams.

They should instead ask themselves why a language picked up in the streets is posing a threat to languages that are taught up to university level.

I think it is time they re-examined they way they teach languages.

My only beef with CJ Mutunga, as far as those tweets are concerned, was using ‘broken’ Sheng.

Maybe he should consider taking private lessons from his friend Juliani.