The reason I prefer Kilonzo to Kalonzo ...

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By MAKAU MUTUA
Posted  Saturday, February 11  2012 at  20:15

What a difference one vowel makes. One is “Kilonzo” and the other “Kalonzo.” But the ‘i’ and the ‘a’ that distinguish their names make all the difference.

In Kikamba, the prefix ‘ki’ denotes “big” while ‘ka’ refers to “small.” The former is thinking “big” while the latter is thinking “small.”

This is the question: What type of leadership does Kenya need now?

While Justice minister Mutula Kilonzo is headed towards Damascus, VP Kalonzo Musyoka has turned his back on the biblical city.

Both belong to the Wiper Democratic Movement, but they are headed in opposite directions. VP Musyoka appears more interested in State House than in fundamental reforms.

Very surprisingly, Mr Kilonzo has become the unexpected conscience of a malignant political class. Both VP Musyoka and Minister Kilonzo have checkered political and professional careers.

They rooted for Kanu in Kenya’s darkest days. Mr Kilonzo, a leading attorney, was a Kanu stalwart at the height of its repressive rule.

I remember his virulent attacks against me and others who opposed the Kanu-party state. He thought multiparty advocates had ingested a satanic potion.

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He was former President Daniel arap Moi’s trusted lawyer. There’s little doubt that he became wealthy through his connections to the Kanu-state nomenklatura.

That’s why he was nominated to Parliament in 2002 to stop Narc from completely cannibalising Kanu. But then he quickly started to exhibit an independent streak.

Mr Kilonzo is a brilliant man. He was the first person in East Africa to obtain a First Class Honours law degree from the University of Dar-es-Salaam.

Those who have locked intellectual horns with him acknowledge his sharp mind and wit. But apparently there’s more to him than smarts.

The man apparently has a conscience. I believe he’s decided to throw his lot in with reformers. Salvation has come to him, and I believe Mr Kilonzo is on the road to redemption.

That’s why he’s defied President Mwai Kibaki and VP Musyoka – his party boss – on key “national” issues.

He has refused to parrot the KKK/G7 tribal agenda. In my view, Mr Kilonzo is distinguishing himself as a true democrat.

But it is on the matter of the International Criminal Court and the fate of the Ocampo Six – now Ocampo Four – that he’s been most impressive.

He was an early and unrepentant supporter of The Hague trials. He openly and vigorously protested VP Musyoka’s “shuttle diplomacy” to scuttle The Hague trials.

He’s refused to genuflect at the feet of two of the most prominent Ocampo Four – Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and Eldoret North MP William Ruto.

When other senior politicians have been shamelessly licking Mr Kenyatta’s and Mr Ruto’s boots, Mr Kilonzo has vehemently denounced them.

VP Musyoka – who has been accused of waiting to benefit from the woes of the Ocampo Four – now views him as a thorn on his side.

It’s pathetic to watch virtually the entire PNU political class rally to Mr Kenyatta’s and Mr Ruto’s side. They seem not to give a damn about IDPs.

It’s depressing to witness the moral conscience desert an entire political class. Crimes against humanity seem to mean nothing to them. But not so Mr Kilonzo, who has stuck to his guns.

He differed with AG Githu Muigai for misadvising President Kibaki not to dismiss Mr Kenyatta and former Head of Civil Service Francis Muthaura from their offices after the ICC confirmed charges against them.

Why is Mr Kilonzo defying his political “classmates”? I think he sees the myopia of the elite that’s ruled Kenya since 1963. He sees their intellectual and moral bankruptcy.Mr Kilonzo has gone even further and argued – correctly – that the Constitution bars Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto from contesting the presidency while on trial at The Hague.

But I also believe that he’s not alone. There are many among the elite who increasingly believe that Kenya’s survival and success depends on turning away from the visionless kleptocracy.

I think he now believes that the tribalisation of Kenyan politics is cancerous. This is where he diverges from VP Musyoka.

To me, Mr Kilonzo is a case study in political and moral redemption. He robustly and unapologetically personifies the emergent “new Kenyan” envisaged in the new Constitution – bound by law and sheathed in the national – not tribal – project.

This brings me to VP Musyoka. I think the more Mr Musyoka sheds “crocodile tears” for Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto in the “prayer meetings”, the more he shoots himself in the foot.

He reinforces his image in the public mind as an opportunist. Otherwise why would he thumb his nose at the ICC in spite of the evidence that’s been adduced against the Ocampo Four?

Isn’t it obvious that he’s pandering to the Kikuyu and the Kalenjin communities in the hope of harvesting their votes?

How could anyone not prefer Mr Kilonzo to Mr Musyoka? Kenya badly needs new “midwives” for the next constitutional dispensation.

These can be new entrants into the political process. But it can also be “converts” from the old order to the new order. 
We must move forward together as a country, but we won’t be led into the New Canaan by those who refuse to change.

My view is that Mr Kilonzo is earning his place in the new Kenya. Who else from the old order is going to stand up and be counted?

Mr Kilonzo, will you please lead more of the flock from the Kanu past towards Damascus?

Makau Mutua is Dean and SUNY Distinguished Professor at SUNY Buffalo Law School and Chair of the KHRC.