Lessons and more lessons

It was never going to end well, was it? When the President sent his list of nominees for the positions of Chief Justice, Attorney-General, Director of Public Prosecutions and Controller of Budget to the Speaker of the National Assembly, he set the cat among the pigeons as the Prime Minister had claimed that consultations had not taken place, and that the list be held back until they did. The Speaker sent the names of nominees to the Parliamentary departmental committees for action. As expected, the Committees were divided on political grounds as to what their roles would be, and the reports they tabled before the Speaker reflected the biases of the committees' members, whether they were for the PM or for the President. In the meanwhile, the High Court of Kenya ordered that no vetting could take place, indeed that no action could be taken regarding the nominees, until a suit filed by a women's organisation called the G-10 had been determined. the Chief Justice, an interested party if there ever was one, assigned the case to a three-man Bench to hear and determine the suit. It is still pending before the court, and the Speaker took this into consideration when he made his ruling late Thursday.

Now the Vice-President and a Deputy Prime Minister, both of whom have presidential ambitions, have called into question the integrity of the Speaker in ruling as he did, going so far as to claim that the ruling was meant to give political advantage to the Prime Minister in his war of words with the President and his men. They intend, as they have said in the past two days, to challenge the Speaker's ruling by all means at their disposal, including by sponsoring a Motion in Parliament to reverse his ruling. Some of their more militant partners, including a suspended Cabinet Minister with presidential ambitions, are talking of censuring the Speaker for his ruling, arguing that he has not only ignored Parliament's Standing Orders, but also of failing to uphold the independence of the National Assembly and ignoring the separation of powers, the bench-rock of the Constitution. They are also apparently planning to strip the Prime Minister of his post as leader of his own party and in effect ensuring that he no longer serves out his term as Prime Minister, hoping to deal a serious blow to his presidential ambitions in one fell swoop.

The term of the Chief Justice comes to an end on 27th February, and until he is vetted by the Judicial Service Commission, he will serve out his term as a member of the Court of Appeal. Legal eagles advise that a 'senior' member of the Court of Appeal can be appointed as Acting Chief Justice until the post is substantively filled. Of course, Chief Justice Evan Gicheru could choose to retire on the day his term as CJ comes to an end, but no one seriously thinks he will do so. after all, when have Kenya's high and mighty resigned or retired willingly?

As with all crises faced by the Grand Coalition Government, the machinations behind the latest crisis revolve around the chances or otherwise of the various presidential aspirants. The President's nominees are mere collateral damage and their names will be quickly forgotten as the Prime Minister and his rivals go about their political maneuvering. The Prime Minister had the upper hand when the Proposed Constitution was being reviewed by the Parliamentary Select Committee in Naivasha last year. Then, he somehow managed to wrong-foot his opponents when he acquiesced to their demand for a purely presidential system of government and let go of his dream of a parliamentary system or a hybrid one. It was seen as a bold and brilliant move and he carried the momentum into the referendum, ensuring that his opponents were reacting to his moves and not the other way around. However, in recent months, the PM has made strategic blunders and creating the impression, widely accepted today, that it is he who is on the back-foot, reacting to the tactics of his opponents. He has been weakened in the recent past by the near en-masse defection of his supporters in the Rift Valley to the camp of one of his potential presidential opponents, a man who faces the possibility of trial at The Hague for crimes committed in 2007 and 2008.

The PM and his opponents are near-obsessed with the question of who will succeed Mwai Kibaki as president in 2013 to the almost total exclusion of everything else. Kenyans are facing starvation due to a drought that was predicted over five months ago. While the economy has recovered from the effects of the Post-Election Violence, and tourism numbers and exports are improving, youth unemployment remains worryingly high as does the trajectory of violent crime and police extra-legal activities. However, all these issues remain firmly on the back-burner as the Coalition grapples with the one subject that animates it - 2012.

Kenyans have a golden opportunity in this crisis. They can learn their lessons and apply them in 2012. The current crop of Parliamentarians, bar one or two, does not seem to appreciate the fact that national life does not revolve around the single issue of the 2012 general elections. If Kenyans were to apply these lessons to the future, they will send all of them packing and pick a new crop of leaders who will have a better appreciation of their needs. However, this is too much to hope for. It is for this reason that intellectuals and other opinion-makers need to speak out and speak up, to ensure that Kenyans are in a position to make good choices in the future. If these men and women let down the people of Kenya once more, the Constitution will remain a political football to be fought over by a few at the expense of the many.