Who vetted promoted top cops?

By John Gerezani

On the same day that the papers splashed the big story on the latest judicial purge, the Public Service Commission ran full colour adverts announcing new appointments in the civil service as well as promotions in the cop force.Both moves could be lauded as commendable on face value, but a more intrinsic evaluation of the processes involved in achieving such ends reveal systems haemorrhage which are easily exploited to the detriment of desired long term reforms.  
Let’s start with the purge of Justices Omolo, Bosire, O’Kubasu and Nyamu.

Careers torpedoed

The  common denominator is that they were the senior most judges in the appeal court. That the JMVB struck unexpected and torpedoed careers, in some instances with charges stretching back decades is startling though l don’t fully ascribe to the line that a poor judge should be singled out for a judgement in which he presided over with two other judges who are spared.

Secondly, whereas  l agree with the board that some of the judgements made by the victims were incongruous, evidence abound in troves of similar incongruous and make believe judgements made by some of those given a clean bill of health leaving many of us wondering whether that scalpel was cutting with dexterity.

Netizens are of the considered opinion that had JMVB done its work diligently and conclusively then only one dude could have been left standing. That is to say that hatujamalizana nao. I am also of the firm opinion that all the lawyers who participated in the events that led to the judges emeritus being found culpable should similarly be vetted by the LSK and the verdicts be publicly given granted that some lawyers are known Mr Fix-it through which judges are compromised.

I also advice the CJ to make rules barring judicial officers from presiding over cases in which lawyers appearing before them also happen to be their university lecturers in the parallel degree programmes.

I laud the purge for leaving us with a conservative appeal court division to counter the liberal Supreme Court.

Hey, who vetted those top cops before they were promoted to the next level? I am alive to the recommendation of the Ransley report that all cops of the rank of SP and above were to be vetted afresh in the new dispensation yet even before that is done by the stillborn Police Service Commission, someone is busy adding onto the number, meaning that it will cost more when the vetting is finally done with.   

Let’s face it. Less than a decade ago a dude l know was a green acting Superintendent of Police (SP). Confirmation followed shortly with a subsequent meteoric rise that has placed him a heartbeat away from the soon to be advertised Inspector-General’s post. All these epaulettes were earned not in the field but on a desk job.
Give it to the dude, he had the presence of mind to use his free time to further his education so being redeployed would not hurt him sana. Such vaulting over more experienced colleagues in the disciplined forces requires connections my good people, little wonder colleagues call him the textbook cop with no field experience. 

I have purposefully used that analogy. Were top cops to be vetted today, 95 per cent would go home. How many can honestly declare the sources of their vast wealth? How many can swear on oath not to have at any time subverted justice? How many have not been directly or indirectly involved in extra-judicial killings?

Most corrupt

How many top cops have never pandered to the whims of politicians and the elite? How many are functionally illiterate and owe their posts to nothing but cronyism and nepotism? How many can stand on a higher moral ground and declare that our cops are not the most corrupt in East Africa?  

The same standards applied to the judges must also be evenly applied to top cops, the DPP’s office, probation and neti officers and the Judiciary staff. Wembe ni ule ule.