National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi must ensure Parliament provides oversight over Executive

My proverbial sword is today raised against National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi. That’s because Mr Muturi is a clear and present danger to democracy. Speaker Muturi’s calculated and premeditated assault on the Judiciary suggests one of two things.

Either he doesn’t have the foggiestidea on the doctrine of separation of powers, or he’s determined to abolish it. His attacks on judicial independence are both outlandish and full of blather. This is my take — Mr Muturi’s anti-democratic proclivities are as dangerous as the long proboscis of the malaria-carrying anopheles mosquito.

Methinks the Constitution is doomed unless Mr Muturi is kept in “his lane” and strictly confined there. He’s the poster child of a Legislature run amok. Let’s clip his wings.

Let me walk you down memory lane so you can appreciate what makes the man from Siakago tick. Mr Muturi, a graduate of the University of Nairobi’s School of Law, has a checkered history going back to his student days. I know because we were in school together — he was one class ahead of me. He — and Senate Minority Leader Moses Wetang’ula — were political twins. The flagship university then was a hotbed of student politics. The battle lines were drawn between Kanu regime apologists and student reformers. Speaker Muturi and Senator Wetang’ula were unambiguously identified with the former. Myself, the fallen comrade Odindo Opiata, and other members of the Interim Committee, the popular student government, led the latter.

Mr Muturi was elected MP for Siakago on a Kanu ticket in a 1999 by-election. He was re-elected in 2002 and served as Kanu’s opposition chief whip, but was shown the door by newcomer Lenny Kivuti in 2007. Last year, he ran for the Mbeere North seat but was crushed by neophyte Muriuki Nyagagua. He was rescued from political oblivion and made Speaker courtesy of President Uhuru Kenyatta, his political patron. Mr Wetang’ula’s profile isn’t that much different. He too was lifted from political obscurity and nominated to Parliament by Kanu in 1992. Like Mr Muturi, Mr Wetang’ula was also a die-hard anti-reformer during the clamour for multi-partyism. Don’t be fooled that the two are today apparent foes.

My point is that Mr Muturi’s political identity and inclinations are conservative, suspicious of democracy, and prone to regime insularity. This explains his subservient embrace of Executive diktats and fear of accountability. I fully get that Mr Muturi owes his job to Jubilee, but the Legislature isn’t a possession of the Executive — it’s the “people’s house”. That is why he needs to create daylight between himself, Jubilee, and the Executive.

He leads the National Assembly as Speaker, and mustn’t conflate that role with the position of Jubilee’s chief whip, or Majority Leader Aden Duale. His mandate is to make sure that the National Assembly acts in national interest, not with partisan bile. Former Speaker Kenneth Marende should tutor him.

But the most distressing single fact about Mr Muturi is his nihilistic attacks on the Judiciary. He’s been reported as calling judicial rulings “stupid”. Sometimes I wonder whether the man actually went to law school. You expect such venom to issue from the mouths of dictators. He flatly stated that he — and the National Assembly — won’t obey court judgments. I have never heard such an irresponsible statement uttered by the Speaker in any democracy.

In essence, Mr Muturi is advocating that Kenya becomes a lawless state, a legal jungle in which courts don’t matter. Methinks Mr Muturi’s elephantine hubris makes him unsuitable for the job.

Let me take Mr Muturi back to school. In a democracy, there are three arms of government — the Executive, the Legislature, and the Judiciary. They are all co-equal and independent of one another. Mr Muturi needs to understand that the Legislature makes laws and exercises Executive oversight. The Judiciary is the guardian of the rule of law and legality — not the Executive, or the Legislature. The Judiciary has the unchallenged and sole mandate to interpret the Constitution and all laws. Is that so difficult to understand, Mr Muturi?