Sunday, November 25, 2012

Makau Mutua grudge against Uhuru, Ruto unprofessional


By JASPER MBIUKI
Prof Makau Mutua is an internationally well-known Kenyan jurist. He wears many distinguished hats, among them being a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He is rarely in Kenya. Seemingly the good gentleman prefers to keep more ratified company; rubbing shoulders with the international legal and diplomatic elite in western capitals such as Washington DC and London. It therefore came as a surprise when it was announced that he would appear on K24’s Capital Talk programme hosted by Jeff Koinange.
I must confess I had never seen an interview of Mutua on television. My thoughts about him had been crafted almost entirely by his body of written work, including his weekly column in a local weekly newspaper. I, and I am sure many other Kenyans, looked forward to seeing him on The Bench with Jeff Koinange, expecting sharp, incisive legal and political commentary from someone who styles himself as an expert in both fields.
Kenyans were in for a rude shock. The façade of a veritable litany of impressive academic and qualifications quickly crumbled and exposed that underneath the carefully crafted guise Mutua is nothing more than another acolyte and intellect lightweight who has been co-opted into the service of a certain section of the political class. Mutua readily, even proudly, acknowledged waging a long campaign against “The Hague Two”, Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and Eldoret North MP William Ruto.
The good professor did not stop there. To my complete astonishment Mutua boldly confessed to Jeff Koinange that “a columnist is paid to express bias”. This was truly eye-opening, for it explained Mutua’s journalistic modus operandi, which often seem to be completely at odds with a number of key legal and ethical tenets that govern journalism.  Sunday after Sunday, Mutua uses his column to launch salvos against Uhuru and Ruto. Before his interview with Jeff Koinange I often wondered why Mutua was obsessed with Uhuru and Ruto. Now we know.
The good professor has seemingly dedicated his life and intellect towards tarnishing the reputations of the two and ensuring they never hold high office in Kenya. Why doesn’t Mutua come out publicly and state whom he wants to be President and why he is campaigning so ardently behind the scenes for him? Is it the work of a journalist and law-lecturer to campaign in Western corridors of power for a particular candidate and against two others? At the end of the interview, Makau very grudgingly admitted that neither the International Criminal Court case nor the court challenges in Kenya are likely to result in a bar to Uhuru and Ruto appearing on the ballot paper next year.
Unfortunately, he then proceeded to spoil this rare moment of clarity with an abject appeal to Uhuru directly, urging him not to vie for the Presidency because in Mutua’s eyes an Uhuru candidacy would widen a perceived Luo versus Kikuyu divide and bring back bad blood between two families – the Kenyattas and the Odingas.
Is this a valid argument? Should such a distinguished and learned gentleman stoop so low as to pander to petty tribal politics and the ‘it’s our turn to eat’ mentality that characterises so much of what is wrong in Kenyan political campaigning? Mutua should know that the media is not a platform for spewing hatred against individuals presumed innocent until proven guilty, nor is it a forum for fulfilling one’s bias.
It is my sincere hope Mutua and his ilk will learn that Kenya needs to move beyond the petty tribal-arithmetic style of politics and embrace contests on policies, ideologies and competing visions for the socio-economic development of Kenya.

jasper@justicembiuki.com, The writer is an Advocate of the High Court.

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