The thought of a senior judicial officer entrusted with the solemn responsibility of restoring the lost confidence in our judiciary being reported to have treated a security guard at a local shopping mall -the Village Market didn't go down well with most Kenyans. The incidence happened after the deputy Chief Justice allegedly ignored the security guards stationed at the mall with metal detectors. Its a security requirement and measure that anybody entering the mall in the upmarket Nairobi undergoes screening for any explosive devices after several incidences reported about grenade attacks by the Somali Al shabab militias and their sympathisers; This comes in the wake of the Kenyan military incursions in to the Al shabab strongholds inside Somalia aimed at dismantling the Al qaeda linked group after a series of blatant kidnappings that saw one French tourists kidnapped to Somalia and later on died in the hands of the militias. So as a security measure, everywhere you go in Nairobi before entering a building you'll most likely encounter security guards armed with metal detectors ready to frisk you. You'd expect the deputy CJ to be accustomed to this checks by now if in deed she's is an ordinary Kenyan who shops like any other person but no she didn't.
Well this is my theory; In Kenya, there are essentially two tribes, forget about the forty plus nonsensical associations. These two tribes have very glaring disparities which have nothing to do with how one wags their tongue or spells/misspells a word-accent. It has everything to do with economic power. How much resources one has will determine who calls the shorts or who ends up being the errand boy.
Whatever Ms.Barasa displayed is not entirely new to Kenyans or in deed in our moral fabric. Our founding fathers received the same kind of treatment-or even worse- under the oppressive regime of our colonial masters. They were made to strip naked in front of their children while women were defiled and others short dead for defiance. The same culture of impunity was handed down long after the colonialist left our country and sadly our new leaders in the new independent Kenya perfected the evil. This was evident in the way the first Prime minister and President of the new Kenyan republic Mzee Jomo Kenyatta treated his ministers. Rumor has it that the old man would sermon ministers in statehouse where he'd order them to lie flat on the floor before administering lashes on their behinds like they did in high schools.
The next president after him- Daniel Moi- wasn't good either. The only difference is that instead of personally whipping errand servants and ministers in line, he used proxies inform of structures controlled by top security officers who detained people unleashed terror in form of torture. Nothing was done to him.
Those were the days when multipartism was a foreign concept as the single party system dominated our lives and political system.
Then came in to power our third president Mwai Kibaki-an LSC fellow who graduated with distinction. He claimed that he believed in an open and free system of government with transparency and accountability. He made grand promises on how he's going to transform our country by restoring law and order, maiming the corruption ghost and his brother called impunity. Well, its obvious that those were just a promises as he slowly surrounded himself with power elites and anti-reformers steeped on blocking any attempts to institute key reforms that would upset the status-quo.
So you'd ask, how does this tie in into the Nancy Barasa's faux paus. You see, in Kenya and in deed other economies where there's a huge economic disparity between the rich and the poor, if you are rich-belonging to the 'haves' tribe- you expect everyone to hold a brief for you and recognise you even in the darkest of nights. Whenever other hoi ppolis are queuing to either cast their votes, purchase fuel or reduce their meager savings in a local ATM machine due to the high cost of living-manufactured by members of the other tribe(the haves), you think they are wasting your precious time and the obvious instinct would be to jump the queue since you have other important businesses to attend to.
While common sense and a belief in a just and credible judicial system capable of handling this whole incidence in a free and fair manner would require of us to at least hear the story from both sides, chances are and naturally so that, members of a 'tribe' would most likely side with their own. Many Kenyans apart the poor guard, have silently suffered from this kind of undignified treatment from people like Barasa who wield power and spit on the face of other people.
Whats the way forward...
Kenya just unveiled a new constitution the other day full of promises all aimed at righting historical wrongs perpetuated by people with connections and influence. The judiciary is one such key organ and arm of the government that needs thorough reforms and that's why the process of vetting both the CJ and his deputy were done in the open to give Kenyans a chance to also interrogate such people bestowed with the responsibility of steering the reform agenda as stipulated in the constitution all in an effort to redeem its bad image.
Whether she survives the onslaught from a barrage of public criticism directed her way so far is a matter of time. But the question that begs is that, will a person given such a solemn responsibility to end impunity in our judicial system really enjoy the confidence of Kenyans after her appalling misdemeanor at the Village Market that portrayed nothing but outright impunity which reminded Kenyans of Egypt biblically speaking? How will she raise her finger at the corrupt judges and magistrates without casting an image of a hypocrate? Will she be respected by her peers and most importantly the people under her leadership? These are hard questions that luck immediate answers but what's clear though is that Kenyans have raised the bar and its upto Nancy Barasa to decided whether she matches the standards or just call it a day.
Well this is my theory; In Kenya, there are essentially two tribes, forget about the forty plus nonsensical associations. These two tribes have very glaring disparities which have nothing to do with how one wags their tongue or spells/misspells a word-accent. It has everything to do with economic power. How much resources one has will determine who calls the shorts or who ends up being the errand boy.
Whatever Ms.Barasa displayed is not entirely new to Kenyans or in deed in our moral fabric. Our founding fathers received the same kind of treatment-or even worse- under the oppressive regime of our colonial masters. They were made to strip naked in front of their children while women were defiled and others short dead for defiance. The same culture of impunity was handed down long after the colonialist left our country and sadly our new leaders in the new independent Kenya perfected the evil. This was evident in the way the first Prime minister and President of the new Kenyan republic Mzee Jomo Kenyatta treated his ministers. Rumor has it that the old man would sermon ministers in statehouse where he'd order them to lie flat on the floor before administering lashes on their behinds like they did in high schools.
The next president after him- Daniel Moi- wasn't good either. The only difference is that instead of personally whipping errand servants and ministers in line, he used proxies inform of structures controlled by top security officers who detained people unleashed terror in form of torture. Nothing was done to him.
Those were the days when multipartism was a foreign concept as the single party system dominated our lives and political system.
Then came in to power our third president Mwai Kibaki-an LSC fellow who graduated with distinction. He claimed that he believed in an open and free system of government with transparency and accountability. He made grand promises on how he's going to transform our country by restoring law and order, maiming the corruption ghost and his brother called impunity. Well, its obvious that those were just a promises as he slowly surrounded himself with power elites and anti-reformers steeped on blocking any attempts to institute key reforms that would upset the status-quo.
So you'd ask, how does this tie in into the Nancy Barasa's faux paus. You see, in Kenya and in deed other economies where there's a huge economic disparity between the rich and the poor, if you are rich-belonging to the 'haves' tribe- you expect everyone to hold a brief for you and recognise you even in the darkest of nights. Whenever other hoi ppolis are queuing to either cast their votes, purchase fuel or reduce their meager savings in a local ATM machine due to the high cost of living-manufactured by members of the other tribe(the haves), you think they are wasting your precious time and the obvious instinct would be to jump the queue since you have other important businesses to attend to.
While common sense and a belief in a just and credible judicial system capable of handling this whole incidence in a free and fair manner would require of us to at least hear the story from both sides, chances are and naturally so that, members of a 'tribe' would most likely side with their own. Many Kenyans apart the poor guard, have silently suffered from this kind of undignified treatment from people like Barasa who wield power and spit on the face of other people.
Whats the way forward...
Kenya just unveiled a new constitution the other day full of promises all aimed at righting historical wrongs perpetuated by people with connections and influence. The judiciary is one such key organ and arm of the government that needs thorough reforms and that's why the process of vetting both the CJ and his deputy were done in the open to give Kenyans a chance to also interrogate such people bestowed with the responsibility of steering the reform agenda as stipulated in the constitution all in an effort to redeem its bad image.
Whether she survives the onslaught from a barrage of public criticism directed her way so far is a matter of time. But the question that begs is that, will a person given such a solemn responsibility to end impunity in our judicial system really enjoy the confidence of Kenyans after her appalling misdemeanor at the Village Market that portrayed nothing but outright impunity which reminded Kenyans of Egypt biblically speaking? How will she raise her finger at the corrupt judges and magistrates without casting an image of a hypocrate? Will she be respected by her peers and most importantly the people under her leadership? These are hard questions that luck immediate answers but what's clear though is that Kenyans have raised the bar and its upto Nancy Barasa to decided whether she matches the standards or just call it a day.
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