Fight over pecking order turns into packing order

Once again, the row between Lands Cabinet Secretary Madam Charity and the National Lands Commission boss Muhammad Swazuri has erupted, which signals the collapse of mediation efforts that the court had imposed on the two.

The spat is about what was experienced in the previous government, some strange thing called ‘pecking order,’ an invention of the nusu mkate Government, when political operatives on the different sides of the coalition were forced to share power and resources, even when they had no intention of doing so. As a result, endless bickering punctuated the term.

But this is not a nusu mkate government and Madam Charity and Swazuri —the latter has a very nice-sounding name — have no reason to be uncharitable to each other.

Swazuri team says they want the court to make some determination who between his office and the Lands Cabinet Secretary are legally mandated to carry out certain tasks.

The man from Sacho, the real professor of politics, once said, rather succinctly, that the Constitution is just a piece of paper, unless it is given full political backing.

That’s the book that Swazuri probably did not read in class and he should take it from Madam Charity that no matter what the court decrees, politicians will have the last say — and I am not talking about MPs who are plotting their recall.