Executive losing at courts, but Kenyans are not winning either

President Uhuru Kenyatta and Chief Justice Martha Karambu Koome with Judges of the Environment and Land Court at State House, Nairobi during the swearing-in ceremony of recently gazetted Judges Nairobi on June 04, 2021. [PSCU, Standard]

Several years ago, before Kenya got a newer way of picking judges, the Judiciary was the headquarters of injustice, a place where justice used to be strangled or tortured to death.

During that period, the civil society was vibrant and fearless — it was the trusted fearless defender of the voiceless and it coined the phrase “why hire a lawyer when you can buy a judge.”

But the judges and magistrates were not acting alone. The bridge between them and the victims of injustice were lawyers some of whom are in the current governance structure as State officers or consultants.

The most vocal people in the civil society then were also learned friends, ladies and gentlemen who knew how to write proposals to foreign donor agencies so as to get funding for real and imagined human rights causes.

While it would be unfair to write that the second group were accomplices in the murder of justice and the subsequent rot in the Judiciary, it is fair to note that they maintained a loud silence about the activities of their professional colleagues who were the big players in the dirty game of killing Kenyans with injustice.

The civil society and its argument of lawyers won, the 2010 Constitution came into being, and some of the fighters joined the current system where they are busy doing the opposite of what they fought for.

That written, things are different though and Kenyans in general and lawyers in particular can shout without fear, about the independence of the Judiciary — but only when they are on the winning side.

When they lose, the Judiciary becomes the 1980s and 1990s demonic den of iniquity, and certain judges, even the Chief Justice, are picked for ridicule on social media platforms where they are prosecuted and their character persecuted.

For the last month or so, the Judiciary has been receiving exaltations and there is jubilation that Executive Orders and Executive-supported shenanigans are being declared unconstitutional by the courts.

The Judiciary is now the ultimate defender of what is left of Kenyans’ rights — and the loudest in this happiness spree is the same disputation of lawyers which gets angry at the Judiciary when matters do not go its way.

Disband Judiciary

Of course some Executive Orders have been declared unconstitutional before, in the current era when the ruling party adherents — senior lawyers and charlatans — loudly called for the disbandment of the Judiciary, but there was never so much joy as is now being witnessed.

It is common knowledge that Kenyans are easily excitable and often celebrate their wins fast before realising that it was Pyrrhic victory and there is nothing to take home.

That is why those who are celebrating now should ask themselves if they are happy because Kenya will gain from the reversal of Executive Orders or it is just because they do not like the person who signed them.

There is virtually nothing wrong with being happy, even if it is just for a nanosecond considering that impunity is reigning supreme in Kenya today, but how did the nation get to this point?

Courts are saying that status quo ante has to be maintained, but do Kenyans know what was lost in the period the orders were in place and will they be recovered?

Sadly, the fight to recover them, if ever launched, will be blockaded by the licentious and charlatanic lawyers in their professional and personal capacities because their cronies and partners — sexual or whatever — are beneficiaries now and they will also benefit eventually.

There is so much disillusionment with the head of the Executive that should any of these gargantuan brick and mortar projects collapse and, God forbid, deaths occur, Kenyans would just consider it a loss for the Executive.

But Kenyans would be the losers since they are paying for these concrete behemoths through the nose and other orifices only that they would be blinded by Lucretian pleasure because the adversary is very powerful, and only nature can fight for them.

But all these projects, including Executive Orders, that are causing a collective heartache came to be because the Legislature is filled with a bunch of easily corruptible spineless blabbermouths who in are in bed with the Executive and failed in their job of checking its excesses right off the bat.

Now that the nation is being hit for six, they come to wail with the suffering easily excitable Kenyans they conned in to electing them and who are equally to blame.

And puh-lease dahlings, do not take me down that rabbit hole of, “oh, you now are blaming the victim.” Nah. These were our choices. We should gladly own the consequences.