Uhuru retirement benefits not subject to political obedience

Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei has tabled a motion in the Senate seeking to stop former President Uhuru Kenyatta’s retirement benefits. [File, Standard]

This week we have witnessed various pronouncements by government leaning politicians, both members of the National Assembly and the Senate regarding the retirement benefits of former President Uhuru Kenyatta. They have consistently threatened to discontinue the benefits through a motion in Parliament on the basis that the he is now engaging actively in politics, particularly through his party, Jubilee. Thankfully, Constitutionalism and the rule of law is always built on the idea of equality before the law. Constitutions and statutes should inherently be structured in a past, present and futuristic perspective. Put differently, they must take care of historical mistakes and give a never again alarm, cater for the emerging and pressing needs of the present times and be able to even if not with razor edge certainty, foretell the future. A transformative Constitution as ours therefore has to protect without discrimination those who are strong now and who may be weak tomorrow. Inversely, the weak now who may be wielders of power of tomorrow. As it is say, there is a moral idea behind law. That of good behaviour, that the law should be ordinarily be in the hands of well intentioned persons. However, due to the external disciplines as society, politics and the idea of power, that idea always turns out otherwise and, in the circumstances, power has to be contained to some limits.