A
little-noticed ruling by the Supreme Court, according to Eric Ng'eno, my
senior, will set the stage for a potentially interminable delay in
declaring the results of the presidential election in future so long as
the Supreme Court does not reverse itself. Mr Ng'eno is correct that
when the Supreme Court decided to stamp its authority regarding the
privilege of advocate appearing before it to ask for adjournments by
permitting this privilege to operate as a right, it sets the stage for
mischievous lawyers using the ruling to ensure that the results of a
presidential election are delayed while the country waits on
tenterhooks. However, Mr Ng'eno is surely presumptuous in declaring that
the 2007/2008 violence was triggered by the delay in announcing the
results of the contest between the ODM's Raila Odinga and the PNU's Mwai
Kibaki, the incumbent and eventual winner.
The violence occurred because of a complex set of circumstances, the most critical event being the spectacular level of rigging that occurred in the period between the close of the polling stations and the announcement of the results from key constituencies. The late surge in the incumbent's numbers was suspicious as was the late surge in Mr Odinga's numbers in constituencies where he was the preferred candidate. Surely too, the manner in which Samuel Kivuitu and his disgraced Electoral Commission of Kenya communicated the results - indeed everything to do with the presidential election - ensured that when Raila Odinga and his acolytes refused to accept the results of the presidential election and they called for "mass action", the tinder would be set alight and the nation would burn for the next three months.
Mr Ng'eno has performed a valuable service in his analysis of the Supreme Court ruling. What seems like a minor issue has the potential to change the face of the nation by permitting certain acts that were not permitted or anticipated before by the law. It is sad that like us all, Mr Ng'eno obsesses over the effect of the ruling on the political landscape. Politics may be the glue that binds this country together (even the so-called Artur Brothers sniggered at a population of 30 million "presidents"), but it is not the only factor affecting our quality of life. The rule of law and the effect of the independence of the Judiciary have the potential to re-shape our destiny just as much as politics does. A little-reported contest between the US government and a Kenyan company has the potential to re-write the land law of Kenya. If the case goes all the way to the Supreme Court and it goes the US government's way, then one of the innovations int he new Land Act is set to be struck out by the court and it will change the meaning of the land law of Kenya with far-reaching consequences.
Land is the principal cause of our political problems and its management has been the cause of violence and corruption for the past 40 years. If it is true that Jomo Kenyatta at one time owned land that equalled what had been grabbed by the colonial settlers, we have a long way to go before we can even begin to see ourselves as a civilized nation. One of the goals of the constitutional review process was to reform the administration of land in Kenya. Many hoped that official reports such as the Ndung'u Report would be the foundation for creating a level playing field for everyone when it came to the Land Question. Evidently, this is not the case. Land litigation is still fraught with allegations of corruption and unfairness. Despite the new land laws, hundreds of thousands of Kenyans continue to be cheated when dealing in land. The MRC at the Coast has based part of its claim that "Pwani si Kenya" on the Land Question. 2013 will be a watershed year, but there is no reason why we should place all our national developmental eggs in the political basket; we need to spread them out to the Judiciary basket, the land basket, etc. The presidential vote is not the only game in town.
The violence occurred because of a complex set of circumstances, the most critical event being the spectacular level of rigging that occurred in the period between the close of the polling stations and the announcement of the results from key constituencies. The late surge in the incumbent's numbers was suspicious as was the late surge in Mr Odinga's numbers in constituencies where he was the preferred candidate. Surely too, the manner in which Samuel Kivuitu and his disgraced Electoral Commission of Kenya communicated the results - indeed everything to do with the presidential election - ensured that when Raila Odinga and his acolytes refused to accept the results of the presidential election and they called for "mass action", the tinder would be set alight and the nation would burn for the next three months.
Mr Ng'eno has performed a valuable service in his analysis of the Supreme Court ruling. What seems like a minor issue has the potential to change the face of the nation by permitting certain acts that were not permitted or anticipated before by the law. It is sad that like us all, Mr Ng'eno obsesses over the effect of the ruling on the political landscape. Politics may be the glue that binds this country together (even the so-called Artur Brothers sniggered at a population of 30 million "presidents"), but it is not the only factor affecting our quality of life. The rule of law and the effect of the independence of the Judiciary have the potential to re-shape our destiny just as much as politics does. A little-reported contest between the US government and a Kenyan company has the potential to re-write the land law of Kenya. If the case goes all the way to the Supreme Court and it goes the US government's way, then one of the innovations int he new Land Act is set to be struck out by the court and it will change the meaning of the land law of Kenya with far-reaching consequences.
Land is the principal cause of our political problems and its management has been the cause of violence and corruption for the past 40 years. If it is true that Jomo Kenyatta at one time owned land that equalled what had been grabbed by the colonial settlers, we have a long way to go before we can even begin to see ourselves as a civilized nation. One of the goals of the constitutional review process was to reform the administration of land in Kenya. Many hoped that official reports such as the Ndung'u Report would be the foundation for creating a level playing field for everyone when it came to the Land Question. Evidently, this is not the case. Land litigation is still fraught with allegations of corruption and unfairness. Despite the new land laws, hundreds of thousands of Kenyans continue to be cheated when dealing in land. The MRC at the Coast has based part of its claim that "Pwani si Kenya" on the Land Question. 2013 will be a watershed year, but there is no reason why we should place all our national developmental eggs in the political basket; we need to spread them out to the Judiciary basket, the land basket, etc. The presidential vote is not the only game in town.
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