Here are Kenya’s heroes and heroines, with titles and medals to show for it

 

By KWAMCHETSI MAKOKHAPosted Friday, December 31 2010 at 18:07

Last year, on Jamhuri Day, President Kibaki awarded 391 Kenyans – the highest number ever during his presidency — orders, decorations and medals for outstanding or distinguished services rendered to the nation.

Gazette Notice No 16224 sets out the names of those who joined the country’s roll of honour, and it is singularly reassuring that awards, medals and decorations in Kenya are not given on account of lobbying, bribery or any underhand deals, quite unlike in Britain, where the Labour Party distinguished itself by selling peerages.

On the list, you will find deserving names such as the State House Comptroller, Dr Nelson Gitau Githinji, and his predecessor, Prof Nick Wanjohi. The two have managed to distinguish themselves in this role in less than two years, earning the first class award in the Order of the Burning Spear and are to henceforth be Chiefs of the Burning Spear.

Also receiving this award is the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff, Mr Caroli Omondi, who obviously deserves it after three years of doing battle with all old career civil servants who might hesitate in making way for his boss.

Although the Order of the Burning Spear is often awarded to people who show dedication in the armed forces or the civil service, there is always room for an exception. Ms Betty Njeri Tett, who has been Westlands MP Fred Gumo’s waking nightmare in every election, also received a deserved CBS for her long years on the political battlefield.

The 11 Kenyans who received the CBS obviously distinguished themselves more thoroughly than the other 62 who got only the second class honour of Elder of the Burning Spear. No one would argue with putting Ms Judith Wanjiku Kibaki in the second category.

After all, being the President’s daughter is very hard nation building work, but certainly not as demanding as being his State House Comptroller.

Only last year, the President corrected the oversight of his predecessors by awarding Mrs Kristina Wambui Pratt (nee Kenyatta) an EBS, alongside David Awori, the son of a former Vice-President. So no one can say Ms Kibaki is the first presidential scion to receive such an award.

Yet, there is a sense of proportion in putting the First Daughter in the same league as potentates such as Michael Joseph, formerly head honcho of Safaricom, Interim Independent Electoral Commission chair Issack Hassan and National Cohesion and Integration Commission boss Mzalendo Kibunjia.

While on the matter of commissions, the President must always maintain a sense of balance and fairness. By spying regularly on commissions, the President is able to tell which commissioners are working, which ones are idlers and which ones are deadwoods.

Mr Hassan and Dr Kibunjia obviously run their commissions single-handedly, only calling in their commissioner colleagues to append signatures to work they have already concluded in the night.

Such is the keenness of the President that he was able to tell that the chairman of the Committee of Experts, Mr Nzamba Kitonga, deserved to fit in the same distinguished category as the First Daughter.

Since another COE member, Mr Otiende Amollo, had been working harder than the other experts, he was singled out for an EBS. The rest – vice-chairperson Atsango Chesoni, members Abdirashid Abdullahi and Bobby Mkangi as well as director Ekuru Aukot – are third class material who should be grateful for getting to be Morans of the Burning Spear.

Their contribution cannot be rated in the same way as that of say Mr Gichira Kibaara, the secretary for constitutional affairs at the Ministry of Justice, or Mr Daniel Maanzo who faithfully kept the ODM Kenya registration certificate safe from vultures, or even Ms Terry Mungai, who has repeatedly put Kenya on the world map of beauty pageants with her organisational skills. These are deserving EBS material.

As for Ms Njoki Ndung’u, she should be content with the EBS she received for pushing the Sexual Offences Act through Parliament. The foreign experts – Dr Chaloka Beyani, Prof Paul Ssempembwa and Prof Christina Murray – will not lose sleep for not being recognised. After all, these are not the days when Kenya used to issue 23 Germans with medals and awards in one day.

Their work does not even hold a candle to that of Mrs Stella Kilonzo, who has so thoroughly run the Capital Markets Authority that when Ngenye Kariuki stockbrokers weighed the prospect of confronting her last year, they chose to close shop and flee.

Nor do they rate the same group as Mr Ezekiel Mutua, the Director of Information who in his time single-handedly ended the journalist of the year awards. These, too, are the true heroes of Kenya, and they have a medal — MBS — to show for it.

kwamchetsi@formandcontent.com