“I
suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along
with people.” Mahatma Ghandi once said so and today I see it replicate, but
this time far way from Calcutta. This time it is southern of Sahara desert.
Every place you set foot on Kenyan soil, some words will always be mentioned if
politics are involved and the election to come is the debate. These set of
words are either chapter six of the constitution
or the word integrity. They have
become the modus operandi. Kenyans have been fooled by the fact that this
integrity thing will help them get good leaders. This is a comic strip in a
constitution. (Gagagagaga) (Baby laugh). You
must be joking Kenyans am sure you are not serious, are you? But if you are,
let us go and check it again. This is more than a joke, putting your hopes in
it? First I declare to you that this chapter is what in a manner of speaking I
can say it is;” a fish bait in a pond full of sharks”. Chapter six together
with the political parties act have stated categorically that all these people
can only be stopped from vying for office only if all avenues of appeal are
exhausted. A person is not disqualified under clause (2) unless all possibility of
appeal or review of the relevant sentence or decision has been exhausted.
This is a clause repeated in both the political parties act article (26) and
the constitution article (99)
Kenyans
let me kill your hopes in a rhetorical manner. How long does an appeal in a
court of law take to be established? With five judges of the court of appeal
down, how much longer will it take? How much more time do we have remaining to
go for the election? When is the vetting starting? Did you know parties are
supposed to submit their candidates for election three months before the
election date? How many cases of public officers do you know who have been
found guilty or their appeal rejected? How many people are willing and bold
enough to come up just like Miguna Miguna and expose these people or testify?
Is chapter six an independent chapter or dependent on other chapters and acts
of parliament? Is chapter six going to be implemented retrospectively? You know
that disbarring these politicians will be almost impossible? You know the
answers to these questions guys?
Chapter
six will set a very wrong precedence to the leadership of this country. You
don’t just measure integrity by what people did in the past. This is going to
haunt people with events they did thirty years ago. We don’t need this article
of limiting people to work. This is just a waste of public funds. In fact it
will not disbar the mighty, so why do it anyway? The constitution has provided
us with avenues of recalling our leaders if they don’t work up to task. Let
them come and judge them from what they will do henceforth, we cannot work
retrospectively. That is being punitive and not exercising integrity. We know
who has integrity and who does not, we know the lyrical sycophants at the
King’s court, we know the mediocre and the shambolic leaders, we know the looters of yester-years assume
they have undergone a Pauline conversion because they are in opposition and
oppose the Government of the day, we can create an modus
vivendi with our votes to work it out with them. Let Kenyans use the power of
the vote to vet out these people. A small click of people called vetting board
should not limit leaders for Kenyans. Let democracy be fully not partly. A nation's culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its
people.
Most of you will not
agree with me now. I am ready for that for I know, first they
ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation,
nor does truth become error because nobody sees it. I understand, only few people like Janyando
and I are meant to see far and see the future. But after the vetting is done
and the general elections are over I will raise the same questions that I
raised today. Let’s make it right now or I will win this bet with Kenyans. I do not want to foresee the future. I am concerned with taking care
of the present. Kenyans let us not put our hopes in chapter six it will fail
us, our votes are the ultimate hope. By the way have our votes ever failed us? God has given us lemon, let us not
ask for oranges. Let us make lemonade.
Let us therefore not lose sight of the antelope for the squirrel. In
matters such as these Kenyans, that’s when we can prove to the entire world
that it is the dog that wags the tail and not vice versa.
I know we are looking forward to the disbarring of leaders
by the integrity test of chapter six and metaphorically speaking, from the
Egypt of impunity misrule to the Canaan of integrity leadership; but I have my
doubts fellow countrymen and women that those hopes we have in chapter six are
a rhetoric that may fail us, and I repeat it is
a fish bait in a pond full of sharks. Kenyans, the Joshua who will lead us to
this Canaan of integrity and “clean leaders”, that we so wish, hope and pray
for are our votes.
The columnist S.N.John; is a student of law at Africa Nazarene
university, the vice chair of LAANU, a prospectus columnist and political
analyst. The opinions written in this column are for the writer himself and not
in anyhow that of Africa Nazarene University or LAANU, if they are it is a mere
coincidence. The opinions given are impartial and no personal vendetta has been
expressed. The writer has proof of the facts given and is ready to adduce any
evidence if required to do so.
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