File | Nation Justice Minister Mutula Kilonzo: “I am not aware of anyone in Kenya with the power to stop the sun rising in the morning.”
By Alphonce Shiundu ashiundu@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Friday, March 11 2011 at 22:00
Posted Friday, March 11 2011 at 22:00
In Summary
- While Kibaki and Raila took the plaudits for standing up for the new law, it is the minister who has become its face to former allies’ chagrin
- "You may like me; you may dislike me, but I know how to read. Reading the Constitution convinces me that my approach is legitimate. My PNU colleagues have accused me, and I forgive them because I want to go to heaven.” Mutula Kilonzo, Justice minister
It is difficult to listen to Justice Minister Mutula Kilonzo passionately lay out his reform record without getting the disturbing feeling that you do not really know the man.
The politician from Mbooni parries criticism that he was a key defender of the much-maligned Moi regime with the unrepentant response that he did not break any law.
Mr Moi ruled for 24 years, with Mr Kilonzo, 63, handling most of his legal affairs.
“There are people who accuse me all the time that ‘you were Moi’s lawyer’. Wasn’t Moi a Kenyan? Isn’t he still a Kenyan citizen?” the senior counsel asks emotionally.
“If I stopped being minister today, I would go back and say ‘Mzee Moi, I am back. Do you have any challenges?’”
The minister says he provided Mr Moi “with the best legal advice just like the Ocampo Six are entitled to the best legal representation on earth”.
“It’s a constitutional right... So you can’t blame a lawyer just because he acts for a Kenyan. The best thing is to go to that Kenyan and say, ‘don’t go to Mutula, he’s a lousy lawyer’.”
His children, he says, still represent the former head of state.
The minister then forcefully reels out his reform credentials, all the while claiming he has always been “misunderstood”.
The Justice Minister says he reaped where he sowed with regard to ODM-K’s registration after the 2005 referendum, and would not allow anyone to trample on the new Constitution.
He recalls climbing the black metal gate at Sheria House to push for ODM-K registration while Prof Anyang’ Nyong’o and Mr Otieno Kajwang’ — now in ODM — shouted for the Attorney General to come out and grant the party a certificate.
“I knocked on the (AG’s) door with this (wedding) ring. Back home my wife said, ‘Darling, be careful, don’t damage the ring I gave you’,” the minister says with a chuckle.
He says he was the leader of the 2005 ‘No’ campaign team, which with the support of 57 per cent of Kenyans, threw out the then draft Constitution. His delayed support for the new law last year was “one of the lessons” he learnt from Mr Kiraitu Murungi’s tenure at the Justice ministry.
“You remember him saying he’ll shake the whole country? I told him we’ll shake him. And we did!” the minister says of the 2005 referendum.
What does he think of predecessors Mr Tom Mboya, Mr Charles Njonjo, Mr Murungi and Ms Martha Karua?
“All my predecessors were confronted with issues of a national nature. But they lost it where they took political party lines, or where they took the position of defending either the President or their political parties. The law was not drawn for individuals,” he says.
Mr Mboya, the minister explains, “rearranged the Constitution” to “punish the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga”. That was the 1969 amendments to the Constitution.
“You remember Mr Njonjo saying that to even imagine the death of a president was treason. Was that defence of the country or defence of the President?” he asks rhetorically.
Mr Kilonzo points out that the 1976 Constitutional amendment to allow Mr Paul Ngei to run was one of the low points of Mr Njonjo’s career.
The minister then tears into Mr Murungi accusing him of misleading President Kibaki to disobey the 2002 pre-election pact that propelled him to power.
He reserves his most potent attack for Ms Karua, whom he replaced as Justice Minister on May 4, 2009.
“Of course, Martha says she’s a reformer; that’s not the way I remember her! When we recommended essential reforms (in 2007), did she accept?”
He thinks her worst was in 2007 when there were vacancies in the Electoral Commission of Kenya. As ODM-K team leader, he demanded that the vacancies be filled in an inclusive manner but Ms Karua refused.
“And what was the advice to the President? ‘You’re the President, and you have a right to appoint. Didn’t the President appoint those commissioners? He did. It brought us to our knees. By the time we were standing at KICC, together with Martha, me representing Kalonzo (Musyoka) and Martha representing President Kibaki, the chickens had come home to roost,” he says.
On the Ocampo Six, the minister says: “They should go (to The Hague) a week or a few days early, so that they don’t get caught in flight delays. Let them follow the process,” he says, noting that the government will, however, use the clauses in the Rome Statute to challenge the jurisdiction of the court and admissibility of the cases.
Mr Kilonzo spoke to Saturday Nation:
Do you agree with those who say you have undergone a transformation, given your Moi regime past?
When you accuse me of transformation, I don’t know what you mean. I have been consistent and have never been “pro-”, for the sake of “pro-”. I like supporting issues, not individuals. I put national interest way above short-term personal interest. If you check my past, you’ll find that this is how I’ve always operated.
I can’t tell you what advice I used to give Mr Moi because of client confidentiality, but if he wanted, he could put it in his memoirs. But you could ask (Prof George) Saitoti or (Public Service minister) Dalmas Otieno; they know. I am the one who gave Prof Saitoti a memorandum to present to Kanu to push for a new Constitution within a year.
But when he presented the memorandum, his colleagues abandoned him and made it appear like it was his idea. It cost him the vice-presidency for 11 months. I have no regrets. I didn’t break any law.
How is your relationship with Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka?
Don’t expect Mutula to support an issue because Kalonzo, my party leader, supports it. I take positions that I understand are correct. He has a right to take positions on political expediency. You really can’t be the minister for Justice wearing a big hat in a rally, taking the position of your like-minded politician. Politicians come and go; a country remains forever. Justice is for everybody.
What is behind your recent independent stand?
You may like me; you may dislike me, but I know how to read. Reading the Constitution, convinces me without a doubt that the approach I’ve taken is legitimate.My PNU colleagues have accused me, and I forgive them because I want to go to heaven.
They say I support Prime Minister Raila Odinga. They don’t seem to think that the PM has a head and a brain and that I also have a head and a brain.God gave me the right to exercise the little brain that I have to make decisions that are not just made for purposes of my tribe, religion or region.
If I can’t think of Kenya at this age and at this time, when will I do so? Being a senior counsel, I’ve finished all the medals. If I cannot take an independent position at this point, when will I do so?
That’s the courage I was referring to...What other people do is up to them. But I want to assure you; the sun will still rise. I am not aware of anyone in Kenya with the power to stop the sun rising in the morning.Do you think that fear will be sufficient reason for me to misadvise President Kibaki? Never!
Do you feel slighted that as Justice Minister you have been left out of the diplomatic efforts to defer ICC cases?
I didn’t want to go since I don’t agree with that strategy. Even today, I’d refuse. My PS Amina Mohammed had thought that I’d be helpful in telling the world the progress in judicial reforms.
But (if I’d have gone to the African Union’s Addis Ababa meeting) I might have been tempted to contradict the President in front of his counterparts.
What I was taught in criminal law is that in a country that respects the rule of law, it is far better for 100 guilty persons to be acquitted by a court of law than one innocent person to find his way to jail through irregularity.
Apart from practising law, serving your constituents and feeding your lions, what do you do with your free time?
I do a lot of reading. Besides, I want to go back to playing golf. I haven’t played in a long time as I have been busy. I also grow coffee, vegetables and have forests in Mbooni. It gives me a lot of satisfaction. Come to Mbooni and you’ll understand the sort of person I am.
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