Monkeys and forests.

Two events in the past week demonstrate that we are far from doing the things that we promised ourselves to do when we ended the KANU Era in 2002. The High Court ordered the Governor of Nairobi and the Nairobi Woman Representative to hold reconciliation talks, while the President reshuffled the chief executives of state corporations.

When the Women Representative of Nairobi City walked to the Governor's office in solidarity with city workers who had gone on strike, she reminded Kenyans that disputes are never settled in a civil  manner in Kenya despite the millions of cases backlogged in the Judiciary. Rather than negotiate in the spirit of give and take, the Nairobi city workers were determined to force a confrontation with a Governor they believed was an illegitimate one. They were determined to demonstrate that new and improved systems of governance for the city were anathema to their interests. They wanted to carry on with a perfidious system that allowed them to milk the residents of Nairobi for all they are worth without providing services that would make the city the envy of the region, the continent and the world.

This has been the case since the Constitution was promulgated in 2010. The changes it has mandated have made it near impossible for sensible people to agree on what needs to be done, especially in the devolution of public services (and finances). Justice Lenaola's order that the Governor and Woman Representative is an admission that the rule of law is a farce. It applies only when it is convenient. From a political perspective, it will be a grave error for the Governor to be prosecuted with a crime; it will be seen as a political vendetta by one side of the government against another. It is a crying shame that these sorts of arrangements can only be made for the men and women in power and not for the hoi polloi sweating to earn a decent living.

President Kenyatta's appointments raise other concerns. Mr Kenyatta is acutely aware that Kenyan politics is unique. The rules that apply in advanced African democracies as South Africa and Ghana do not apply in Kenya. Patronage still rules the roost here and the appointments are meant to calm the waters before the next round of elections and by elections. It is why the men and women chosen for the positions have ties to the leading partners of the Jubilee coalition. It is also why the restless and inexperienced first-timers in the Eleventh Parliament are getting unhinged. It is not just the public appointments or their ethnic distribution that continue to animate the pundits; the distribution of tenders and other public policies have as much to do with the stalemate as well. Mr Kenyatta faces a great challenge in reconciling his campaign rhetoric with the reality of Kenyan politics.

Kenyans must demand more of their government and their government must deliver on its promises. This can only be achieved if we make a clean break with the past. The rules that governed what could and could not be done in politics must change. Integrity should define whom we appoint. The choices that we make must not be informed with the short term interests of politicians alone. Unless Kenyans play a constructive role in the governance of their country, the two events will form a distressingly familiar part of their government for a generation at least.