Why you cannot wage a war against the Judiciary, civil service and prevail

**Judiciary Building, Nairobi.** [Elvis Ogina, Standard]

The unwarranted vitriol by the President against the Judiciary is unfortunate and detrimental to the business environment.

While the political power balance tilts in favour of the Executive, it is the sanctity of the law and an assurance of a strong arbitration mechanism that governs commercial transactions.

For instance, when President William Ruto says he would not obey court orders, what signalling is that to businesses transacting billions of shillings, some directly with the government itself?

What should an investor, foreign and domestic, considering sinking millions of dollars into the economy make of it? Why should other Kenyans obey the courts if the President won’t?

John Mason, a respected international speaker, minister of the gospel and bestseller author states: ‘A man of words and not deeds is like a flower bed full of weeds’, in his book Imitation is Limitation.

Weighing carefully the utterances of the week from Kenya Kwanza’s top brass, one cannot miss out on the feeling that there is something oddly private and personal about the twin priorities on housing, health cover and privatisation of key state agencies, other than public interest.

Important facts here are: one, the so-called ‘plan’ that prioritises these programmes seems to be only known to the President.

Key allies, insiders and advisors have resulted into social media either to explain or interpret the President’s statements.

Officially, there is no formal strategic document to guide the public service on the Bottom-up Economic Transformational Agenda (BETA).

Two, all official data over the past 15 months KK has been in office does not support these initiatives. Equally, there is no proven disruptive outcome from any of their interventions thus far.

For instance, while the New Year address to the nation sought to demonstrate phenomenal achievements, the Standard Group truth meter has since found most of the key listed achievements as untrue, overstated or unproven, except for inflation. We will explore further key official data shortly.

Three, the KK top brass cannot cleanse themselves on the excesses or failures of the Uhuru Kenyatta administration that they blame for their lack of demonstrable achievements nor the opposition that they accuse of sabotage.

For all practical purposes, Parliament has been reduced to a clown of the Executive.

People’s Enemy

Kenyans are acutely aware of the power of brown envelopes over the men and women they elect to represent them in the House. They have proved resilient in punishing this wayward behaviour on the ballot each successive election. In 2027 they will do it once more.

Going by these facts, the President and his men want the nation to trust them and only them alone. To them, the enemy of the people and progress for the nation are the Honourable Judges, Magistrates and other judicial officers – corrupt and rotten to the core! But is this true? Where is the evidence?

For avoidance of doubt, the only person with singular authority, power and instruments to bring corruption to a definitive end is the President himself.

By nature, governments are bureaucratic systems that respond to the tone at the top. For example, of the Sh3.68 trillion planned annual government expenditure in the 2023/24 fiscal year, about 98 per cent of it is spent by the executive.

Parliament was allocated Sh41 billion, the Judiciary Sh23.2 billion and the National Government Constituency Development Fund (NG-CDF) Sh53.5 billion.

Furthermore, it is evidentially visible that the fight against high-level graft in the country has faded into a shadow since the KK administration took over. Other than shouting in public galleries, what else can the public touch, feel and see?

Close insiders of the regime are daily lamenting of how senior appointees in the administration are buying high-end properties and personal effects on social media. The president has at his disposal unfettered access to both domestic and cross-border high-quality intelligence.

The questions that beg urgent answers are: if truly he has evidence of corrupt judicial officers, why has he not taken the required steps to hold them to account?

More fundamentally, does he then only receive selective intelligence for corruption at the Judiciary and not for the executive he heads and the Parliament he controls?

Is it practically possible for only one arm of government to be the only corrupt in a society that stinks of the vice everywhere?

From this column, it is absolutely true that as a nation, we need to start an urgent conversation on the rot of corruption in the country. But this cannot be a selective amnesia to vilify one arm of government and venerate the others.

There is corruption in most official transactions in government as much as there is corruption in judicial proceedings; there is corruption across our elections and passing of bills in parliament as much as there is corruption in places of worship; there is corruption in government employment and appointments as much as there is in several private sector recruitments; there is corruption in saccos, markets and commerce based societies in as much as there is corruption in our ‘chamas’ and interactions with domestic and farm workers. Yes, this is the urgent conversation that we must have as a nation and society.

2024 priorities

This column is of the considered view that the President must rely on official data, seek honest wise counsel and appreciate the Constitutional boundaries of his authority and power.

Chief Justice Martha Koome. [File, Standard]

For instance, under article 226(5) of the Constitution, the President cannot authorise any Accounting Officer to spend public funds contrary to Public Financial Management Acts verbally as was the case in Nyandarua.

That directive can only be valid if written, after which he shall take personal liability for it, and has no immunity over any loss of public funds including after exiting the political office he currently holds.

In the last three Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) CEOs surveys (conducted in July, September & November 2023), the captains of industry have consistently highlighted subdued business optimism because of high taxes, increased fuel and electricity costs, weak shilling and reduced consumer demand.

Their prospects for growth in quarter one of 2024 are still subdued except for seasonal improvements expected in tourism, financial services and agriculture.

ILO standards of employment in the country as at December 2023 show 80 per cent of Kenyans are working poor.

The CBK mobile money tracking data indicates mobile money holding declined by 0.5 per cent for the 11 months to November 2023 compared to the same period in 2022.

This is the first decline in the 17-year history of mobile money transacting in the country.

Furthermore, the allegations that civil servants enjoy an unlimited health insurance cover and a 3 per cent mortgage is not only untrue, but also a setup for dedicated civil servants against the masses.

Only the President, his deputy, parliamentarians and a few other state officers enjoy such benefits.

Anyone can verify the true salaries, allowances and benefits of even the security officers attached to these dignitaries, teachers and nurses working within our communities.

With such persuasive and credible evidence, how on earth does building houses, for poor masses who cannot afford them, with levies forcefully deducted from working poor people and struggling businesses become a matter of life and death for any sensible administration?

Whose interest is all this serving, because it surely is not a newly found love for the poor masses by those currently wild power?