Wheel of justice spinning for Baraza, Kerubo

The holidays are over and Kenyans are already immersed in various sectors, building the nation. Long faces, sighs of relief, New Year resolutions and prayer mingle together on the highway of dreams for 2012. Welcome to the rat race.

Relegated to the backburner are the images of starving Kenyans, the public and corporates’ astounding response, the calls to strike action, public grilling of contenders for high office, a deflated shilling, dark cloud of bank rates headed to the stratosphere, and a global recession.

Year 2011 also saw road accidents retain pride of place as Number One killer of Kenyans, thousands of internally displaced persons remained hopeful that this could be their year of liberation. Kenya Defence Forces finally took the fight to Al Shabaab’s doorstep and Kenya continued its courtship dance with the International Criminal Court.

Internationally acclaimed Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai passed on, but also cancer was determined as a clear and present danger that needs national attention.

Paper quality

Even as the country took firm and steady steps towards full implementation of the new Constitution, politicians continued to bring hilarity and comic relief, by being their usual selves, complete with recriminations, party hopping, robbing the poor and staying true to their It’s-our-people’s-turn-to-eat mantra, to entrench ethnicity and nepotism.

Homeowners in Syokimau and Kyang’ombe saw their dreams reduced to rubble by bulldozers and thousands remain apprehensive about the quality of the paper their title deeds are printed on since word from the Ministry of Lands has it that they may be counterfeits, not worth the ink applied on them.

However, the most compelling reading started very innocuously and has thrust two very different women into the national limelight.

Rights crusader and Deputy Chief Justice Nancy Baraza and private security guard Rebecca Kemunto have refused to leave the headline news, chiefly because there is an ongoing probe, whose findings are awaited by an anxious public, and secondly, the recommendations on the alleged confrontation will define and seal some fault lines in the Constitution.

Questions are being asked about the legality of security checks by private companies. Answers are being sought about impunity, abuse of power, firearms and the laws relating to these, justice, fairness, and just good old rumours and innuendo.

Bloggers have gone to town with the altercation, some crucifying Ms Baraza’s alleged high-handedness. Others wonder whether the tell-all Ms Kerubo has a genuine case for assault. Very dramatic, indeed.

That notwithstanding, the DCJ who was interviewed publicly for the job she holds, now faces a report from her peers for a very public altercation. We refuse to speculate on the direction the probe will take. However, the court of public opinion has been withering in its assessment of right and/or wrong.

That is why it is unfortunate that some leaders and activists have sought to paint the Baraza-Kerubo affair as an assault on their communities or rewriting the national gender agenda. These leaders have missed the point by a mile.

When will our leaders realise that the majority voted for the new Constitution so that the scales of justice are not weighted in favour of any one citizen, group or interest?

That there would be no sacred cows, exceptions and exemptions to laws crafted for the greater good and dignity of the people of the Republic of Kenya, in whose power the Constitution is vest.

Ethnic card

Such skewed, erroneous and tribally inclined value judgements are the past this nation has sought to flee from. The blatant play of the ethnic card will completely alter such a straightforward investigation and play into the hands of opportunists and purveyors of hate speech. No one is qualified to judge the motivation of either Baraza or Kerubo. And definitely not the apologists known to, as it were, wail louder than the bereaved.

If such leaders have anything to say on this matter, the door remains open for them to visit the justice commission as witnesses. As it is, the commission’s report should conclude this matter to the satisfaction of all parties. Then perhaps, the rest of the country can steer its attention back to nation building.