By OKECH KENDO
Politicians inside or outside the Tenth Parliament should not get away with opportunistic positions that underrate the intelligence of right thinking Kenyans.

It cannot be true that Kenya no longer needs reform-minded leaders, as some fair-weather change activists would like you to believe. And while they claim the reform chapter is a done deal, these former reformers are actually playing their master’s tune.

This tune may not be consistent with the national interest.

National interest
The public interest is to have the new Constitution implemented in letter and spirit.  This will take patriotic, resolute leadership, and a long time to realise. 

This business is beyond pretenders to reform who may be torn between the status quo and the national interest.

It is precisely because of indecision and a Coalition Government working at cross-purposes that police reforms have stalled.

Last year, the police had wanted to do self-service reforms. The Police Force actually started internal vetting, which was stopped because of public outrage, especially from the civil society.  The mechanisms for effective police reforms are far from ready, and self-served vetting is not what the Constitution orders.

Also, last year, high-ranking provincial administrators were sent to Brasilia, Brazil, to learn how devolution works in the Americas so they could learn how to ‘reform’ themselves. The report of the trip to South America at taxpayers’ cost was not made public.

Last month, the Independent Police Oversight Authority was constituted. But two of its critical pillars – the National Police Service Commission, the Inspector General of Police, and two deputies are still missing from the security equation.

The establishment of the National Police Service Commission stalled because the wrong names were submitted for approval. There was also, as usual, no consultation between the President and the Prime Minister on the nominations.

Which means the same police force, which was hugely blamed for skewed handling of post-election violence is still intact a few months to the General Election. Someone is buying time with change. This can only mean some powerful forces close to the Presidency have a stake in the status quo.

The security system is yet to reflect the face of Kenya as Agenda Four of the National Accord and Reconciliation Act prescribe for all public offices. This arrangement does not augur well for national reconciliation and cohesion.

Civil society’s role
By preserving and fortifying the skewed security network, right thinking Kenyans hope there is no plot to manipulate the Kibaki Succession to serve provincial interests.

Eternal vigilance from right thinking Kenyans, especially the civil society and the Judiciary is invited to safeguard the national interest.

President Kibaki may have supported and promulgated the new Constitution in 2010, but his work is far from done, and his legacy is far from secured. The President still has a lot more to do, which he must before he retires on December 30, for history to find balance between his blunders and achievements.

Yet the President has been caught many times on the wrong side of the new Constitution, in ways that question his reform credentials.

The man in State House is an undecided reformer. This has to do with his political upbringing. Mr Kibaki joined the presidential race on the Christmas Eve of 1991, to reap from years of pro-reform movement, where he did not sow.

He resisted multi-party democracy with the vigour of a favoured insider. Any other Vice-President or Minister for Health, which Kibaki were, could probably have done as much. Soul become Paul, but the conversion lacks resoluteness and conviction.

By claiming the reform agenda is safe, under lock and key with the new Constitution and its reform commissions, some politicians are merely positioning themselves to join the next lot of looters.

To be sure fair-weather reformers are in good company. But former Kimilili MP Mukhisa Kituyi leads breaking news of doublespeak. Writing in a local daily two weeks ago, the man who shuffled between Prime Minister Raila Odinga and Musalia Mudavadi trying to mediate their feud in April, has finally attained his chameleonic hue.

As Trade minister under President, Kituyi, one of the ‘Young Turks’ of the 1990s, wedded the status quo. A status he shared with former reformers like Kiraitu Murungi, Martha Karua, Kivutha Kibwana, and Koigi Wamwere.

They ensured Kenya did not get a new Constitution within 100 days as Kibaki had promised in 2002. They discovered you do not speak the language of reforms all the time. Sometimes you have to harvest goodies of the establishment.

Cheerleaders
If the reform business was indeed done, and closed, then there would no cases of mischief at the Government Printer, Parliament, Attorney General’s Chambers, and State House. Many times over the President has been caught on the wrong side of the new Constitution.

In May, President Kibaki appointed county commissioners, but he later changed the gazette notice to suggest he had “deployed” the officers. Some presidential aspirants praised President Kibaki for his ingenuity. They advised those who felt aggrieved to go to court.

Last week the High Court declared the appointments or ‘deployment’ unconstitutional. The rebranded Judiciary hit His Excellency below the belt, but none of the presidential aspirants who cheered him as he broke the law are willing to take half the pain of the embarrassment. You know who cheered Executive impunity..

Writer is The Standard’s Managing Editor Quality and Production.
kendo@standardmedia.co.ke