It is a brand new dawn

Senior positions in the Public Service are not like ordinary jobs. If you are being interviewed for a job at a private institution, it is unnecessary for your potential employer to conduct a public examination of your suitability for the job. The institution may have its reasons for secrecy, not the least being the secrets related to its successes, and this secrecy cannot be taken as an affront on the right of Kenyans to be informed. The Public Service, on the other hand, is special, and it is imperative that the men and women who make policy and other decisions while implementing government policy are persons of probity, integrity and intelligence, capable of deciding matters in the public interest and freed from any conflicts of interest by the record of their service or experience in and out of government. It is therefore, fitting that the JSC interviews for the positions of Chief Justice and Deputy Chief Justice are conducted in the full glare of the public, an unheard off event in the annals of Kenyan history.

Kenyan presidents do not like to be told what to do or have their power restricted by the uninformed masses. Moi and Kenyatta ruled by decree, deciding who would serve the nation and how they would serve. The manner in which government policies were implemented, or laws enforced, was as as transparent as mud. Kenya entered into treaties and other agreements at the behest of the president and president alone. The government drew from the Consolidated Fund as if it was its own personal bank account, without real accountability or any attempt at transparency. As a result, the nation suffered when billions upon billions were looted by well-connected individuals from the public coffers. President Kibaki came to power, promising that he was a new broom ready to sweep away the detritus of the KANU Era, but having inherited a system perfected by his predecessors and enjoying the power they had wielded, he was loath to give up the same pernicious influence enjoyed by them. The First Kibaki Administration was a disappointment for the millions who had chanted "Yote yawezekana bila Moi." The Second Kibaki Administration began on a very low note; hundreds of Kenyans had been displaced from their homes and thousands had been murdered. The president himself had been sworn in in secret.

But the spectre of Judges being grilled out in the open by an independent panel has revived the hope that was Kenya in 1963. The interviews have been ham-fisted, but the rationale behind them is still sound. This nation is no longer prepared to sit idly by while the President and his cronies make decisions that affect us. The days when secret appointments to public offices could be done without taking into account the needs of the nation are long gone. If Kenyans are to be persuaded that a wind of change is sweeping across the land, it is imperative that this public interrogation of all senior public officers be extended to every public institution. In the long run, the interview panels will be professionalised; they will make adequate preparations for their activities and they will strive to erase the impression that they are professional hatchet-amen out to settle scores with those they interview. This will also ensure that the public is informed of the qualifications of those who attempt to sit at the top of the edifice that is government. If we are lucky, public confidence in the government will rise, and instances of abuse of office will be reduced. It's a brand new dawn and potential candidates for public office had better get used to it.