From: Mugo Muchiri
Los Angeles, CA
February 16, 2011

Environment Minister John Michuki is by most accounts a successful politician and an astute businessman. Through three Kenyan presidencies, he’s managed to surf varying degrees of Kenya’s testy political waters and still maintain relevance in the national arena. He now has an enviable closeness to the center of power having been a long-term friend and confidant of President Mwai Kibaki. If there’s one person who’s a card-carrying member of Kibaki’s inner sanctum, Michuki would be he.

So it should come as no surprise to anyone that he readily came to the defence of the President on the question of whether adequate consultations with Prime Minister Raila Odinga had been held for the positions of Chief Justice, Attorney General and Director of Public Prosecutions. “I have no reason to doubt the President when he says he consulted the Prime Minister,” Michuki dourly asserted.

In Michukiworld, the mere fact that the President forwarded the relevant names to Parliament confirms that consultations did indeed take place. It’s surprising logic for an individual who’s no stranger to the field of fast and hard analytics which, together with his much admired acumen, have pivoted him into being one of East Africa’s most seasoned business operators and undoubtedly one of Kenya’s wealthiest ones. Michuki’s vast empire spans hospitality, agriculture, real estate and land development and education.

But Michuki hasn’t been the only pol doing the heavy lifting. Other PNU allies of Kibaki long joined the fray, offering the mantra “consultation need not imply agreement”. Fodder was forthcoming as Michuki served up elaboration. “If farmer Njuguna wants to plant nduma and seeks advice from a passer-by on the best patch of land to do the planting, the friend may advise him to plant in the direction of the slope. Is that not consultation? Njuguna may decide to plant elsewhere. But there was consultation!”

True, except Raila is no wandering, outside party that just happened on the way. What Michuki must know but may find inconvenient to point out is that Njuguna’s calculations may be less dismissive if the ‘consultee’ had a 50% ownership stake in the same farm. It’s important for Kenyans to realize that the National Accord & Recondition Act which delineates the power sharing framework between the President and Prime Minister is part and parcel of the new Constitution.

Michuki is a respectable elderman whose contribution to the development of Kenya is well recognized even by his political adversaries. Wananchi will long be grateful for the brief sanity they enjoyed on Kenyan roads which in no small part was due to the Kangema MP’s take-no-prisoners approach when dealing with the Matutu Vehicle Owners Association during his stint as Transportation minister.

And recognition for Michuki hasn’t stopped at the waters edge. In 2009, in recognition of Michuki’s successful efforts at cleaning up the dangerously polluted Nairobi River, UNEP’s Bakari Kante was effusive in his praise of Michuki, citing the latter’s “leadership and contribution to the global environment”. It even had Raila reminiscing about spending time around Nairobi dam in the 70s while courting his wife Ida.

What makes Michuki a compelling figure in Kenyan politics today is the fact that he has the President’s ear and trust like few others. Which is why, instead of having knee-jerk reactions to matters of great political import, it is important that he exercises deliberativeness, reflectiveness and marshalls his powers of persuasion.

The issue at hand in Kenya today is this: In what meaningful ways will the Judiciary be reformed and reconfigured in order to meet the demands of a rising nation for justice, fairness and equality under the law. Because the rich and powerful have always circumvented the cause of justice, Kenya’s judiciary has been the GREATEST STUMBLING BLOCK to unlocking the potential of its people.

That’s why the steps in re-vamping the Judiciary must be on the basis of TOTAL AGREEMENT between Kibaki and Raila. They must realize that 35million of their fellow compatriots can ill afford a botched start on so noble an undertaking. And Michuki could be that person who gently reminds the President that in a few eyeblinks of history, Kenya, like America, will be celebrating its bi-centennial. Does Kibaki want to go down in history as the finagler per excellence whose sole guiding motivation was the love of Muthaura? Or does he want to have that enviable sheen to his name and be adored as ‘the one who truly snatched all Kenyans – and not just one – from the lion’s belly?’

JUDICIARY AS AN INFUSER OF NOBILITY INTO NATIONAL LIFE

And here’s an example that illustrates both the importance of the Judiciary as a venerable institution for pivotal societal change and of the powerful messaging of what you might call the ‘principle of unanimity’.

1954 was an especially critical period for America for this was the year where the momentous issue of segregation in schools was to be decided under Brown v Board of Education. Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson was opposed to the idea of de-segregating education and was the court’s greatest stumbling block to ending this national eyesore. Unfortunately for his family, but fortunately for the issue, Vinson died and was replaced on the bench by Chief Justice Earl Warren.

Warren saw it as critically important for his bench to rule unanimously even where a majority decision would have sufficed. How could he pass up of THE opportunity of a lifetime: to loudly proclaim to the Southern States – deliriously fervent supporters of whites-only schools – that equality under the law was the constitutional right of every American, white or black? Warren abhorred the idea of a fringe element on the bench that might provide a platform which Southern anti-change sentiments might rally around.

My sense is that America will be eternally grateful for the sagacity, temperance and fortitude of character of Chief Justice Earl Warren. Indeed throughout the history of this great nation, it is personalities like Warren that have borne the heavy responsibility of nudging America forward towards a more perfect union (think George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglas, Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, Johnny Appleseed). They are the pride of America and, through their efforts, along with the support of their fellow citizens, have made the United States the envy of the world and the template against which societies around the world aspire to emulate.

Leaders can from time to time be blinded. President Kibaki for all the good Kenyans will remember him for appears to be under a spell. He discounts the sentiment of the overwhelming majority of Kenyans who want the Hague trials to continue. He will stop at nothing to achieve a deferment even when he clearly knows that two, and perhaps even more, permanent members of the UN Security Council are a sure ‘No’ vote if the matter even sees the light of day in New York.

It therefore falls upon confidants such as Michuki to save the President from himself. Dear Bwana Waziri, prevail upon the President that at this time in the history of Kenya, there is no duty greater or sacrosanct than ending the culture of impunity……… otherwise Kenyans are left feeling Impunity is he. The first (and indeed subsequent steps) of constructing a Judiciary that can hold its head high in the civilized world must be based on TOTAL AGREEMENT of the two principals.