Change is coming ... slowly

When Chief Magistrate Gilbert Mutembei acquitted William Ruto and his colleagues of the corruption charges laid against them by the Attorney-General, no one was surprised. This is how it has been in Kenya since Independence, and there are no signs that things are improving when it comes to holding our political leaders to account for their sins of omission or commission. However, if one looks hard enough, one may espy glimmers of hope for the future. The Solicitor-General, as he was closing the two-week induction course for newly-appointed State Counsels, called the 113 new officers the 'face of Kenya' and he couldn't have put it any better. In appointing new lawyers for the government from all its 47 counties, taking into account that it is now a Constitutional requirement to balance the appointments such that gender-equity is respected and that marginalised communities are included in the governance of the country, the State Law Office is laying the ground for what will be a truly representative government, reflecting the hopes and aspirations of its diverse religious and ethnic groups. No one is being left behind, not at the State Law Office at least.

It will take more than the ethnic balancing in government appointments to make Kenya truly representative, but removing the impression that the government is reserved for a few favoured ethnic groups is the first in a long series of steps. The people of Kenya must get off their back-sides and take part in the process of guiding the nation in what is equitable and fair. Three of my new colleagues come from the Suba community and at least one is a Muslim. More must be done in order to ensure that the face of the nation is properly reflected in the institutions of governance. If this country is to wean itself from the vicious cycle of General Elections and elections' violence, men and women of good will must begin the process of identifying what their rights are, what their communities are entitled to, and democratically ensuring that these rights are protected. Some communities have been so marginalised that the number of their members of graduate from our universities in such professional courses as law, medicine, engineering or architecture has remained static for decades while other communities have produced thousands upon thousands of professionals. As a result, marginalised groups have remained wedded to their concepts of culture with dire consequences on their human development indices: low economic growth, low employment, high infant and maternal mortality, low higher education scores, and poor representation in the public service.

Elected representatives in Kenya have frequently betrayed the hopes and aspirations of their constituents, relying on corrupt methods to get and retain political power. Consequently, they are not beholden to the people who send them to Parliament or the Local Authorities' councils. They have failed to credibly articulate the challenges their constituents face and have failed to protect them from the ill-effects of poor management of public resources. As a result, the people's disillusionment with the political process has engendered a cynicism with the process that limits political participation to voting alone. Therefore, many public institutions are dead or dying because the people are unwilling or unable to participate in their rejuvenation. Witness how the Constitution implementation process has been dominated by lawyers alone to the almost total exclusion of all other professionals or Kenyans.

Mzalendo Kibunjia's NCIC report on the ethnic makeup of government and the State Law Office's recent ethnically diverse appointments are pointers that at least some Kenyans realise that things cannot proceed as they are and that something must change. More Kenyans, especially professionals, must pick up the gauntlet and begin the process of holding their elected representatives to account for the manner in which the nation is government, the manner in which resources are allocated and appropriated. At the end of the day, if we fail to participate in making things better, the light at the end of the tunnel may prove to be a high speed train barrelling down on us.