Always stand for what is right and just

Nascent nations have episodes of human struggle to affirm dignity. At 52, Kenya is reinventing. Aspirations we adopted in 2010 after the blight of the 2007 post-election chaos express relief that our national rebirth is due. We are restarting the independence crusaders' manuscript.

From anti-colonial struggle to a struggle against post-colonial dictatorship, we now oblige to anchor constitutionality. Our Constitution remaking was spurred by the burden of institutional decay and malfunction.

Separation of powers means checkmating a polity, where no branch undermines others. It behoves support for the common good. To sabotage a President simply because you want to topple a regime is unpatriotic and reckless. And to dismiss outside critics just because you are in power is unwise. To cure sometimes inevitable grandstanding, constitutional organs are expected to invigilate against suffocation of the public.

Declaration of a new dispensation behoves fostering bodies to amplify good governance and accountability. Executive authority has been tempered; its powers decongested and spread or shared with Parliament, devolved units and the Judiciary.

New life was injected into the Judiciary, both in terms of the software and hardware to percolate justice. This is the turn we needed to remodel our nation.

Of course all this is consequent to a dark past. From the outside lane, we could see a plethora of individual legislators and judges in days gone by who stood steadfast for the rule of law and constitutional democracy. Opposite these, others slid into the annals of history with epitaphs of their complicity to suppression of the truth, theft of public assets and violation of human rights.

For the latter, how exactly do we often slide into such a trajectory? Some officers think their ethnic or party barons have a silent pact with them for blind surrogacy. It is a stamp from the country's dark past of totalitarianism that rewarded mediocrity with filthy perks and perquisites.

Anyone dumping the constitutional gauntlet as a representative of the people's will and sovereignty cannot be effective. He would see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil. He may set himself to become the powerful hail for elite sycophancy but this is an empty cause. Such a leader blunts the principle of integrity, and hurts the value to help institutions grow purposefully.

The path of sycophancy and impunity is easy. It requires neither courage nor innovation, it scorns integrity. It requires only a faithful rendition of the script; there is no opportunity for introspection. In the 1960s, sycophants and charlatans set up an immoral schism between the founding fathers of this country, leading to an untidy political distrust between communities that has gone on to date. In 1994, court jesters in the Hutu-led Rwanda puffed up a campaign to eliminate minority Tutsi. This shameful episode resonates a senseless feat that made a parody of a continent.

Philip Gouverechi's 'We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed Together With Our Families' speaks of horrendous hallmarks of ethnic bigotry shamelessly 'baptised' in the church itself. In hours, nearly a million innocents massacred. Does this sound strange? Maybe we have forgotten that we ourselves annihilated some in a church in 2008. In both, it is puppeteering that inspired evil. Yet we must forgive but never forget; never again!

Blind loyalties propelled the Hitler-Mussolini and Franco axis in southern Europe, stagnating those countries for decades. Africa is a rich-poor continent, courtesy corruption of cabals of exclusive clubs and ravenous exploitation by outsiders as we watch. They do to us what they won't permit in their continents.

Supporting a country's democratically installed leader even when you belong to "loyal" opposition is an act of patriotism.

Let's unite to subdue forces that have robbed generations of inherent fortunes. To celebrate chicanery just because you are adjacent to those in power, is to rob our heritage. Impudence and impunity shouldn't be deodorised to appease the egos of 'gate-keepers'. We need to crush 'entrepreneurs' of sleaze, perpetrators of hate-speech, brokers' 'appropriations' that hold our national leadership captive.

Isn't it tragic when opposition chiefs protect their "own" questioned in matters ethics, yet unashamedly froth against the Government?

Self-imposed gluttonous mercenaries and mandarins are the reason many states have wrecked. Unless the President has spoken to you, espousing a different script, always go by his written word.

Lest we forget, younger-than-Kenya Singapore moved 'From Third World To First' in three decades precisely because Lee Kuan Yew toughly espoused and executed firm self-leadership. He also invested in a collective vision. In his 'Hard Truths About Singapore' he unveils secrets of a journey replete with foresight and courage.

As I walk the slopes of my village 'Facing Mount Kenya', I can feel the nolstagia of a gone generation beckoning us to be bold and selfless. We are late, but we must complete our chapter, too. We must act boldly to make our country great. Let us be bold, just like Jesus Christ was. Merry Christmas dear Kenyans.