Don't Allow Hypocrites To Perpetuate Impunity

Miguna Miguna, BA, LLB, LLM. Prime Minister's Advisor, Coalition Affairs, Joint Secretary of the Permanent Committee on the Management of Grand Coalition Affairs
Office Of The Prime Minister Republic of Kenya.The Prime Minister's Building Po Box 74434-00200 Nairobi, Kenya.

Kenya’s political, religious and business leaders have become shamefully hypocritical. They conveniently retreat into their ethnic cocoons whenever they are confronted with difficult national questions that demand courage, vision and answers.
They preach water but drink wine. They shed crocodile tears whenever tragedy strikes when they know that deep down, they don’t care. Often, they prefer tragedy and misery because these offer opportunities for their enrichment.
Our leaders and their rich business associates know that the absence of functioning public health facilities fosters opportunities for private hospitals, clinics and health centres. So they have ensured that public health services have a reputation for being places where people go to die. Expectant mothers ready to offer us new life routinely die with their unborn children. Public health centres have become notorious for the number and variety of deaths, rather than famous for stories of how modern science and medicine prolongs life span.
Our leaders have frustrated hitherto thriving public schools, the security and emergency services to the extent that their own private schools, ambulance and security services have mushroomed throughout the country. As our leaders become wealthy, the conditions of the ordinary citizen have correspondingly worsened.
The leaders have no commitment to anything except the accumulation of wealth and power. Their worldview consists of cynicism, betrayal, deception, greed and laziness. Their philosophy and ideology is essentially to make more money and acquire power. Nobody asks why. People have been fooled into believing that this is what makes someone smart. And as long as the public is deceived on the leaders’ real intentions, this tragedy will persist. Leaders promise milk and honey when they can’t deliver, and have no commitment to delivering, even water and ugali. It is a national tragedy.
When did hypocrisy become honourable in Kenya? When did deception become a national virtue? When did integrity, competence, hard work, honesty, courage and strong principles become distasteful in this country? Why do we prefer, hail and celebrate mediocrity? Why is it that we prefer placing pliable, morally weak and incompetent people in positions of power, authority and responsibility? Why do we always hurl abuse at, stigmatise and alienate those who bravely stand up for what is right for this country? Is Kenya jinxed?
It’s horrible that most people in Kenya – no matter how highly educated, experienced or knowledgeable – worship money and power. Professional ethics don’t count. Sycophancy seems to be the only route to ‘stardom’. For those who have struggled against dictatorship and poverty throughout their lives and have overcome near hopeless situations, conditions are cleverly created to transform them into self-seekers.
Our leaders are quick to draw stark contrasts. We’ve been reminded of patriotic nationalists, critical thinkers, principled and courageous people like Bildad Kaggia who died in abject poverty, as a scare tactic. Virtual nobodies who ‘prospered’ through sycophancy, incompetence and corruption are eulogised as ‘hard-working,’ ‘mature,’ ‘level-headed’ and ‘dependable’.
A John Githongo in our midst is, in the words of a colleague, ‘too dangerous’. To these people – and they are legion – John Githongo is a man they publicly want to identify with so that the ordinary people may consider them ‘true reformers’ but deep down, they fear and hate everything Githongo is supposed to represent: honesty, integrity and incorruptibility.
If you can’t be molded into a ‘skunk’, you are dutifully branded ‘arrogant,’ and ‘abrasive’, two choice words for the renegade. You are quickly stigmatised and isolated. Those who are ready to sell their mothers for 40 pieces of silver are handsomely rewarded. In Kenya, such people are called ‘professional’, ‘technocratic’, and ‘suave’. They may know absolutely nothing about anything, but they are considered ‘safe’. They are safe because they have no scruples. They either partake in corruption or turn the other way.
When the country was demanding accountability for the post-election violence, most MPs passionately argued that only the International Criminal Court could credibly and fairly try the post-election perpetrators. They argued correctly that our judiciary was too weak, too corrupt and too incompetent to deliver justice for the victims. The leaders argued, again correctly, that any judicial process in Kenya would be manipulated, used and abused by the rich, the corrupt and the powerful; that to exterminate impunity in this country, we need both independent and credible investigations and prosecutions.
The unresolved cases of political assassinations of Pio Gama Pinto, Thomas Joseph Mboya, James Mwangi Kariuki, Titus Adungosi, Robert Ouko, Crispin Odhiambo Mbai and many others are examples of both the inability and unwillingness of the Kenyan authorities to deal with impunity. The tens of thousands of unresolved cases of extra-judicial killings provide a sober illustration of the complicity of our leaders with the culture of impunity.
‘Don’t be vague, vote for Hague!’ That’s how the William Ruto and Uhuru Kenyatta voting machines in Parliament sang last year. And they got their way. They blocked the establishment of a credible local mechanism to investigate and prosecute all post-election violence perpetrators. They believed, wrongly, that they had won. They thought that stopping the establishment of a ‘local special tribunal’ meant that the post-election violence perpetrators won’t be prosecuted. But those were pyrrhic victories.
The celebrations were short-lived. Soon, Luis Moreno-Ocampo named the six suspects and everything changed. Suddenly, their folly became apparent. They realised how mistaken they had been. What to do?
After numerous night meetings, drinking binges and sleepless nights, a strategy was concocted. ‘We’ll turn this around. We’ll deal with this politically. We’ll accuse Ocampo and the ICC – anybody and anything – of being anti-Kenyan; anti-African; anti-our communities. We’ll craft a clever strategy of turning us into victims and our political enemies into villains. The ICC is an imperialist court intended to persecute African nationalists…We’ll attack the evidence, the investigators, witnesses…Godammit; we’ll fight to the end!’
Thus the ‘prayer’ and ‘peace’ rallies were conceived. ‘Bring back the cases! Try our heroes at home. The ICC is a political tool by the enemies of our tribes to finish us!’ That became the clarion call. That was the favourite song - until the ICC judges turned the tables and ‘offered’ to bring the cases ‘home’. In a strategic masterstroke, the pre-trial chamber requested the prosecution, defence and victims to submit arguments why the trials shouldn’t be brought to Kenya. And lo and behold - except for Henry Kosgey - all the suspects strongly argued against bringing the cases home. ‘We want The Hague! We cannot have a fair trial in Kenya!’ they thundered together, in separate but obviously co-ordinated legal briefs.
So, why was tax-payers’ money used during the IGAD, AU and UN Security Council deliberations? Why was hundreds of millions of shillings in public funds used in the shuttle diplomacy? Why are Kenyans being forced to pay high-powered foreign lawyers billions of shillings to challenge the admissibility of the cases, on the pretext that ‘Kenya is ready, able and willing to try all six cases?’
Uhuru Kenyatta, Francis Muthaura, William Ruto, Hussein Ali and Joshua Sang have all argued that they don’t expect a fair trial within Kenya. Why, then, have they been holding rallies condemning The Hague proceedings? Is it because they just don’t want to face justice?
Two other incidents further illustrate the hypocrisy of our leaders. During the ‘debate’ into the suitability of nominees for Chief Justice, Deputy Chief Justice and Director of Public Prosecutions, an MP repeatedly referred to the former PS for Local Government Sammy Kirui as a ‘criminal’ who shouldn’t be believed. Kirui had testified under oath before the Constitutional Oversight Implementation Commission that Keriako Tobiko had ‘solicited’ a Sh5 million bribe from him through proxies. Later, the MP sought to ‘clarify’ that Mr. Kirui is only a suspect who is currently facing charges of corruption in our courts.
The ‘criminal’ tag was greeted with thunderous applause by MPs who happen to be strong supporters of Uhuru, Ruto, Kosgey, Muthaura and Hussein Ali. Nominated MP, Mohammed Affey, who had disparagingly referred to Kirui as a criminal, is a staunch supporter of the Ocampo Six. Apparently, neither he nor the other so-called leaders sees any irony in calling the Ocampo Six – who face the worst and most serious criminal charges in the world – ‘heroes’, despite the serious charges.
If Kirui’s testimony under oath shouldn’t be believed on the basis of criminal charges; why should we believe Uhuru, Ruto, Muthaura and Ali? Why are the alleged criminals still holding public office? (In any event, aren’t most convictions obtained through testimonies of convicted criminals? As they say, ‘send a thief to catch a thief.’)
As the hypocritical MPs were shouting ‘criminal’ to Kirui, among them were ‘honourable’ members facing numerous actual and potential charges of fraud, money-laundering, drug-trafficking, tax evasion and other serious crimes that completely disqualify them from positions of leadership, authority and responsibility. Yet, the MPs who were yapping about Kirui’s assumed ‘criminality’ did not demand that those ‘honourable’ criminals should not be in the House. Why not? It is the answer to that question which provides the answer to the fundamental problem that ails us in Kenya today.
Consider also the ‘government’s’ refusal to do anything about Uganda force's occupation of Migingo and Ugingo. Would the president have reacted the same way if the Ugandan forces had occupied villages in Nyeri or Gatundu South? Is the ‘government’ taking no action because both islands are in Nyanza?
One of the strongest defenders of Tobiko is the perennial Amos Wako. As Attorney General, Wako signed all the dubious and dodgy contracts in the past twenty years. He signed the Goldenberg, Anglo Leasing, Ken-Ren, Grand Regency, and Triton – you name it. It was therefore not surprising that Wako should show a keen interest in who is to become the DPP. If the new DPP is competent, independent and has integrity, those like Wako would be the first to be investigated and hopefully prosecuted for perpetuating impunity. However, should the DPP be spineless and involved in some of those scandals like Tobiko, we expect no action whatsoever.
This is a plea to Kenyans from all walks of life: let us guard the values, virtues, rights, freedoms and principles we entrenched in the Constitution. We must never allow the hypocrites, the greedy and corrupt leaders to turn back the clock and perpetuate impunity. Our strength lies in our visions, thoughts, numbers, courage and commitments. I am sure we are equal to the task.

Miguna is the PM’s adviser on coalition affairs. The views expressed here are his own.