It would be harsh to judge Members of Parliament who may have hit the peak of their ambitions on similar terms as presidential aspirants.

A legislator, who was once a youth winger for another mheshimiwa may have no more mountains to climb. For those who may have reached the  height of their aspirations, the integrity bar may be lowered.
Such MPs may be excused even during the age of the new Constitution because they do not have ambitions for president.
If they entertain such illusions, then they have not declared them. When they do, the integrity bar shall be raised. For now their credibility threshold is lower.

MP Joshua Kuttuny can roll across parties without reference to the Constitution. For him this small failing can be ignored because he has not told the public he has ambitions beyond being the MP for Cherangani.
‘Their’ turn to eat
He can have one leg in the Orange Democratic Movement, move to United Democratic Movement, and then shift to the United Republican Party, while being paid as a MP on a ticket of the party he has quit.

Opportunism is fine for MPs without higher ambitions. They can always buy time while breaking the law with impunity.
And if the Registrar of Political Parties Lucy Ndung’u cannot enforce the Political Parties Act, she can also be excused. For that may be why she is being retained in spite of demonstrating spectacular incompetence.

Orchestrated incompetence, as right thinking citizens know, is a senior partner of impunity. And beneficiaries of impunity retain public officers they can manipulate to advance vested interests.
This is how the independent former deputy governor of the Central Bank Jacinta Mwatela was ejected to allow manipulation of currency procurement.

Mrs Mwatela’s insistence on procedure was offensive to ‘users’ at CBK, so an excuse was forged to evict her. ‘They’ did without considering public perception for it was ‘their’ second turn to eat.
Shinyalu MP Justus Kizito can also be allowed the freedom to promote the United Democratic Forum, while sitting as ODM MP. Because Kizito is not running for president, his integrity threshold can be lowered.
Citizens should consider for president only aspirants who agree to be stripped naked in order to be dressed in colours of trust. Which is why it is immoral for some presidential aspirants to promote impunity, even as they promise to respect the rule of law.

Citizens should ask: How would wannabe presidents punish impunity if they cannot submit to the requirements of the Political Parties Act? How would they advocate reform when they themselves personify impunity?

This claim of irrefutable facts needs qualification though: The behaviour of some presidential aspirants in relation to the Political Parties Act is pointedly illegal. They are breaching the law with impunity.
The Sabatia MP, Musalia Mudavadi, has joined the impunity fray. Now he is deep in breach of the Political Parties Act 2011.
hawk-eyed Charles

Mudavadi was elected on an ODM ticket, but has since defected to UDF, which is not a parliamentary party. Now the ODM MP for Sabatia is occupying a UDF bus. And the bull trainer of Ikolomani Boni Khalwale thinks it is right because it is his new bull – Osama II –  breaking the law.

Khalwale would likely drop his new bull the way he stood down Osama I – Eugene Wamalwa  –  during the Saboti MP’s hour of need.  This is the colour of betrayal. for politcians with shifting interests.
Another presidential aspirant, William Ruto, was elected an ODM MP, promoted UDM, but is now campaigning for URP, which is not even a parliamentary party.  And, he is behaving like a man more sinned against than sinning.

Talk, talk is easy, but action is a different matter.
Worse, Ms Ndung’u, the police of the Political Parties Act, is watching the breaches in indifferent glee. Not even the chairman of the Commission on Implementation the Constitution, the once hawk-eyed Charles Nyachae, has censured those aborting the new era.

Uhuru, another presidential aspirant, was elected on a Kanu ticket. Now, he is about to launch the National Alliance Party.
Kiraitu Murungi of Imenti is not a presidential aspirant, but he was once a Minister for Constitutional Affairs. Elected on a PNU ticket, he is now touting for a bus named Alliance Party of Kenya, which is stranded in Nkubu.

This duplicity
Presidential aspirant Peter Kenneth was elected on a PNU ticket, but he is promoting the Kenya National Congress.
Martha Karua was also elected on a Party of National Unity ticket, but now she is in Narc-Kenya. She was also the drafter of the Political Parties Act when she was Minister for Constitutional Affairs.

Wamawa, now Justice minister, has dropped PNU for New Ford-Kenya, which he is about to quit. Mutava Musyimi, another want-to-be-president, has also quit his electing party for the Democratic Party.

Mudavadi, Ruto, and Uhuru promise the rule of law, and are calling themselves “reformists”, but their actions fortify impunity.
These presidential aspirants may not have thought about the duplicity, but they should not expect right-thinking voters to overlook these contradictions of potential presidents.

It is upon you, the citizen, to decide whether you love the talk rather than the walk. If you cannot save your country from executive impunity, no one else would on your behalf.
The writer is The Standard’s Managing Editor Quality and Production.
kendo@standardmedia.co.ke