Uhuru And Ruto Must Run For The Presidency

Uhuru And Ruto Must Run For The Presidency

THURSDAY, 02 AUGUST 2012 14:26 BY DAVID MURATHE

John Githongo, the former PS for ethics and integrity is quoted in the Weekend Star of July 28/29 as stating that it would be “unthinkable” that Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto would be running for the presidency in the forthcoming general elections in the spirit of the new constitution.

This same new constitution has guaranteed them the right to vie in the Bill of Rights and subject to article 99 on qualification and disqualification of candidates. Section 2h talks about disqualification due to violation of chapter 6 on ethics and integrity. Section 3 of the same states that the provisions of section 2h are stayed until all avenues of appeal have been exhausted.

These are SPECIFIC provisions of the constitution and are superior to any other GENERAL provisions of the law including the yet to be passed Bill on Ethics and Integrity and the electoral law. This is because any Act of Parliament that is inconsistent with the constitution is null and void to the extent of the inconsistency.

John Githongo should be the last person to talk about ethics and integrity. When he was appointed to the position of PS ethics and integrity, he left the country in a huff claiming that his life was in danger. He was given refuge by his benefactors in Britain and at one time was summoned by the Public Accounts Committee (then chaired by Uhuru) to shed light on his claims and allegations about corruption in high places and the expected bombshell failed to materialize. (He was accompanied to that grilling by another Uhuru basher Professor Makau Mutua at great public expense all the way to the UK).

Githongo was appointed to the job from his job at Transparency International through the interventions of latter day Raila die hard Joe Wanjui who insisted that John should work from inside State House. This proximity to the corridors of power, more precisely to the presidency helped his bloated ego so much so that he had the audacity to use unethical means to record conversations with his colleagues and to tape his seniors in the Justice ministry. Allegations that he might have taped the conversations with the President in his briefing meetings are clearly treasonable if proven.

How ethical is it for one to record their President? If John was spying for a foreign power, either in corruption related procurement issues particularly in terms of defence procurement, then he should be tried and shot by public firing squad at Uhuru Park for betrayal. Kenyans know by now that Uhuru is at the Hague courtesy of trumped up charges based on false allegations, contained in a doctored report by the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights as demonstrated on the popular TV programme “Crossfire” by Tony Gachoka, which informed the Waki report on CIPEV, passed on to Kofi Annan for onward transmission to Ocampo at the ICC.

It is therefore very mischievous to purport to use the obtaining pre-planned predicament that Uhuru finds himself dragged into as the basis to orchestrate calls for him not to contest the next elections. One cannot also fail to notice that the persons who are in the forefront of these calls for Uhuru not to run are the same civil society players who were the authors of the KNCHR report and who are suspected of conspiring with their foreign collaborators led by George Soros of the Open Society Initiative to effect regime change in Africa and the Middle East.

Is it a coincidence that the calls for the local courts to find that Uhuru cannot run are coming so soon after the ICC cleared the way for him to be on the ballot by setting the trial dates after the Kenyan General Election?

When will the Maina Kiais, Ndung’u Wainainas, Makau Mutuas , Wafula Bukes and John Githongos of this world realize that Kenyans have moved on and are not about to be civil society driven? The said constitution they are citing as the basis of their calls for certain persons not to contest elections is the same document that gives Kenyans their inalienable right to choose their leaders. Therefore , if the sovereign authority of the state vests in the people of Kenya, then we can only tell these self appointed self righteous peoples spokesmen,……..” let the people decide”!

Hon. David Murathe is a former Gatanga MP. The views expressed here are his own.