I
sprinkled a liberal dose of sodium chloride on Jasper Mbiuki's polemic
on the Law Society of Kenya before digesting it because he is The National Alliances Secretary for Legal Affairs (Why Law Society lost its clout as the people's voice and watchman, Standard on Sunday,
April 14, 2013.) But I must admit that Mr Mbiuki is right. The Law
Society has lost its focus; it spends more and more of its energies on
politics than on the unglamourous end of its statutory mandate,
especially of civic education on the law of Kenya. Its obsession with
the political end of its mandate has had quite pernicious effects, even
on its management. In 2007, just before the general election then, the
Law Society was split right down the middle into pro-ODM and pro-PNU
camps that did little to forestall the violence unleashed after the
presidential results were challenged. In 2013, the Law Society would not
be heard by the Supreme Court because in its public utterances, or
those of some of the members of the Council of the Law Society (its
highest decision-making organ), were biased towards the Uhuru and Ruto
team.
When the Law Society, under the chairmanships of both Paul
Muite and Willy Mutunga waded into the political arena in the 1990s, it
was as a champion of the rule of law and a defender of the fundamental
rights of all Kenyans. Sure, the target of the Society's ire was the
KANU government of President Moi, but it did not specifically ally
itself to the fate or fortunes of the Forum for the Restoration of
Democracy movement that was at the forefront of agitations for greater
political freedom for all Kenyans. Today, the Society has morphed into a
partisan tool to be wielded against this or that political (usually
presidential) candidate.
The Society faced a challenge in
reinventing itself after the 2002 general election that ushered in the
National Rainbow Coalition government. Many of its members were
co-opted, in one form or another, into President Kibaki's
administration. The Society ceased being a disinterested observer of the
goings on in government. As a result, it could not find a unifying
voice to cavil against the corruption and gross human rights abuses
perpetrated by the Kibaki regime. The Society reached its nadir in 2007
and 2008 when it was unable to speak with one voice against the
political violence that erupted after Raila Odinga of ODM lost to Mwai
Kibaki of PNU in that year's presidential contest.
Today the
Society finds itself unable to agree on a credible programme to advance
its interests. If it is unable to persuade the highest court in Kenya
that it is non-partisan, then it is incapable of being seen as an honest
broker when major national events call for its advise. The Government
of Kenya, all three arms of it, is undergoing transformational reforms
in order to serve the peoples of Kenya better. It is time the Society
took a leaf out of the political reforms being undertaken and undertook
to transform itself for service in the Twenty-first Century. It still
has a crucial role to play, especially in the political arena. But it
can only play this role legitimately and credibly f it is not seen as a
political plaything for one nabob or the other. The Society must have an
internal debate about its future. It is the only way it can restore its
bruised and battered reputation and be trusted, once again, as the
voice of reason, truth and justice.
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