Legal incompetence will be Jubilee’s Achilles Heel

In my book, the UhuRuto government can be credited for doing more in sensitisation of the public on the provisions of the Constitution than the Committee of Experts ever did prior to the referendum.

They have made it mandatory for Kenyans to have the Constitution next to their remote controls when watching the news because you just know whatever comes from their pronouncements will most probably be unconstitutional. Many lawyers will tell you of phone calls they receive from laymen at the end of a speech by the Head of State or his lieutenants, asking “can he do that?”

The infamous “handing over of power” to his deputy, the “revocation “ of titles to grabbed land in Lamu, the directive on motor vehicle tinted windows, the Security Laws Amendment Bill are quick examples in this governments resume of legal incompetence. The pattern of ineptitude has been worryingly consistent.

Only last week, the High Court declared that while a lawful curfew order can be imposed for purposes of ensuring the successful execution of a security operation, it cannot be perpetually extended so that the residents of an area are permanently under a curfew. This was an open abuse of the curfew in Lamu County.

A few days ago, the Deputy President was growling about kicking out refugees from the Dadaab Refugee Camp. Kenya is a signatory of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees which expressly prohibits the expulsion or return of a refugee to an area of insecurity.

Although the convention does provide for expulsion of criminals, it is absurd to insist the entire camp is a security threat. We know his directive will meet with the law and suffer a fate similar to his boss’s directive on recruitment of 10,000 police officers.

We must commend the Independent Police Oversight Authority as it seems to be the only body that takes cognizance of the word ‘Independent’ in its name. It acted in an admirable manner by declining to capitulate to the President’s illegal directive.

What has become clear is that this government is devoid of ideas that the leadership readily attempts illegalities just to show the country they are doing something. When the inevitable happens and the illegal directives fall in the face of the law, the government finds a perfect scapegoat in those who stand up for the law, blaming everyone from the Opposition to the courts for not supporting the cause. The leadership never finds it an option to consider its own ineptitude.
It was therefore an encouraging sign to hear the President say his government is now ready to admit its mistakes.

Unfortunately, he was not ready enough, on that day, to start admitting any. He had promised to take full responsibility of his illegal directive on police recruitment and in my knowledge of the English language full responsibility means all responsibility, legal, political even social.

Can his Excellency start there and set an example for the rest of his team? We will wait and see. If it actually happens, it will be a refreshing change from the usual see no evil, hear no evil, and no remorse no regret style his government has adopted. Kenyans have not been fooled by the choreographed and often ill-timed public relations stunts that the Jubilee government has been performing in lieu of good governance.

It takes greatness to admit your mistakes, and it has been said that great leaders make great mistakes; so far the only greatness we have witnessed has been on the mistakes.

And what makes it worse has been the government’s insistence on ridiculous stunts in attempting to pass off incompetence as action. As a columnist in one of the local dailies recently pointed out, this is a regime that scores zero out of three on key performance indicators.