Judicial reforms against police reforms

Kenya has indeed come of age. Its was a good breath of fresh air to see Kenya’s new Chief Justice and Deputy Chief Justice, Willy Mutunga and Nancy Barasa, take their oaths of office in normal clothes rather than traditional archaic and colonial robes.   It symbolised a new approach and a break from the colonial past, which is what I think people want to see.   It’s true that the formal court dress comes from the British tradition, but in the UK it is used much less than it used to be.  

It’s no longer worn in the civil and family courts.   Many judges choose to dispense with it (for example in hot weather), and judges of the Supreme Court and the Privy Council have never worn court dress at all (although advocates appearing before them do).   So as Kenya goes through what we all hope will be far-reaching judicial reform, the new CJ is showing that just because something has always been done, doesn’t mean it can’t be changed.  Whatever the outward form, the substance of the new appointments is very exciting.  From politicians to wananchi, people have told me how much they welcomed the televised, open vetting of the candidates for the new jobs.  

To me this new approach really symbolises the way in which the new Constitution has been embraced by Kenyans , its spirit as well as its letter.  The sense that there is a new broom sweeping through the dusty corridors of the judiciary is very real.  And let us not forget that although the challenges facing the new CJ are daunting, there is a good blueprint in the task force report on judicial reform, which could make a huge difference to the lives of everyone in the country who is touched by the judicial system in some way.Sad, therefore, to see the contrast with the way police vetting has started.   

We have great faith in the ability of the Kenyan police to transform itself into a modern, accountable and properly resourced service ,that is why we have consistently supported that process, despite sometimes being criticised for doing so.  But whereas the vetting of judicial jobs seems to have inspired confidence in those appointed, I haven’t met anyone who says their confidence in the police has been boosted by the vetting recently announced. That might change if there was a suitable system for input from the public or civil society.A more inclusive process is in the interest of the police themselves – suitably qualified officers with integrity are more likely to earn the public’s respect and cooperation, while ensuring the careers of good officers are not blocked by bad ones. Perhaps early passage of the Bill setting up an Independent Police Oversight Authority, and a transparent appointment to the new Inspector General slot, would help create that confidence.  

What about drinking?

As I write this blog I am in deep thoughts of an informative argument we had with some of my friends regarding alcohol taking. I am also reminded of a common adage that beautiful young people are accidents of nature,and beautiful old people are works of art.This will become clear as we progress.I have never had an issue with those that drink and I occasionally buy my friends alcohol when asked to do so. On the other hand I do not drink at all out of principle and I expect my friends to respect me and let me be. Kindly allow me to diffuse my reasons.

There is one thing that should be condemned with contempt, this is when people use the wrong premise to justify what they do.Some people argue that the Christian faith is not exactly against alcohol consumption. They base their argument on the fact that Paul advised Timothy to take a little wine for his stomachs sakes.They also argue that Jesus had no business turning water into wine if the wine was not for drinking. By providing alcohol at a wedding,  the critics argue that, Jesus was endorsing alcohol.My reasoning is based on the word of God and common sense. My crystal ball tells me that there is alcoholic and non-alcoholic wine and we cannot say with certainty that the wine Jesus created was alcoholic. The same goes with Paul.

In another instance, we are advised not to be drunk with wine but to be filled with the Holy Spirit(Ephesians 5:18-19).There are more scriptures that condemn alcohol consumption than allow it. In fact scripture says wine is a mocker and beer a brawler. Whomever they lead astray is not wise.Imagine the case of a grown man who urinate on a table that sits a couple enjoying a quiet evening simply because he thinks  the table is the wash room.

It's good to be realistic and objective at the same time.There have been scientific discoveries on some of goodness one can derive from drinking  especially the red wine. However its also important to note that, alcohol is closely associated to every negative aspect of the society suicide,violent crime,birth defects,industrial accidents,domestic and sexual abuse,disease,homelessness,and death .Its knows no racial,ethnic,social or economic barriers.You will always see shocked children when daddy walks in drunk. He will shout out all sorts of words and his slurred  speech. In some homes, daddy’s arrival signifies the beginning of a reign of terror. He will proceed to harass mummy with the children pleading with him to stop beating her.Alcohol consumption is the surest way of inviting poverty into your house. He who loves pleasure will become poor; whoever loves wine and oil will never be rich. How many times have we seen people who squander their salary in one moment of folly when they decide to buy an entire bar beer?

Listen to the word of God. Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaints? Who has needless bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes? Those who linger over wine, who go to sample bowls of mixed wine. Do not gaze at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly! In the end, it bites like a snake and poisons like a viper.Alcohol has killed and maimed people. It is the cause of many a victims being confined to wheelchairs. It has led to divorce. It is also responsible for the spread of STD’s and HIV. Its now being argued that alcohol has an adverse effects on the brain cells,some die and others are altered, when taken in an unregulated  and that maybe the reason why alcohol consumption is one reason associated with migraine. Alcohol taking is also a major predisposing factor in lifestyle diseases such as cancer,stroke,damage of heart muscles and is toxic to a struggling heart.Indeed scientific studies have demonstrated that even moderate use of alcohol may account for 5 to 15 percent of all hypertension. Also key to note is the effect of alcohol on your lungs,reproductive system,liver and your immune system.In women,even daily drink or two raises breast cancer risk.

For all it is worth, stay away from this lethal drink if you have to, please keep it low,very low indeed.And as I have always said alcohol is only for the disciplined. As for me I think coffee, chocolate,tea, and juice will do.I am also aware that it's a free world.

Women, I honour and celebrate you

Today, I celebrate women. Today I am thinking of my amazing mother who had the strong arms and the iron determination to raise 11 strong willed children,who have grown to be responsible young men and women.

Today, I am paying tribute to the woman who sells tomatoes and sukuma wiki to feed her children. She does, after all, in her long day build someone’s nation, one day at a time.

Today I am  feting the lovelies with long hair and big bosoms who raise children that were thrown in the gutter by their sisters.I am doing this because, it’s just that there are some women that I feel need to be honoured, but are not. And this is my reason for blogging today. For the women who are not honoured.I am also  applauding the men who take care of women; standing by them and lifting them up. 

Today, I should be looking at the hard story with a happy ending.As young as  01-year old children are being raped. The beast of this crime are arrested, but its normally  too late. The damage is always done and now this child may grow up without the ability to honour or feel honoured. She was the fifth of his ‘victims’, forced into womanhood.

Hundreds of women need reconstructive surgery after being raped and mutilated. Their husbands who maybe watched them get raped, cannot afford to honour them anymore. Their families cannot see past the disgust that these women are trying to forget. As she struggles to walk several kilometres to the nearest station to report the matter, the soldiers shrug and say ‘it happens’.

Their stories reminded me of girls kicked out of schools and homes because of getting pregnant. They reminded me of the night nurses who are beaten and bad-mouthed by the very same men who have used their services but don’t want to pay. They remind me of the girl who stopped tying her breasts because she was forcefully ‘shown’ how it feels to be a woman.

Today I will honour the women who are looked at as if they were dirty. May you be honoured this  day. Though your voice is waspy and unheard and your dreams are terrifying, I will honour you because I know you are great and deserve it. May our good Lord bless you and take care of you all the day of your life.

Consumers should lobby for quality products

The dairy industry is one of the leading sectors in the economy contributing 4 percent of the country's GDP.

Interventions put in by the industry players saw production increase from  3.2 billion litres in 2002 to 4.1 billion litres in 2008 (28pc) while the formal sector grew from 144 million litres in 2002 to 407 million in 2009 (183pc). During this period, dairy easily became the sector of choice for many and thus a major investment destination.

Dairy production is a major activity in the livestock sector and an important source of livelihood for over 800,000 small scale farmers across the country.

In the year 2000, milk production was estimated to 2.3 billion litres of which, 63pc was marketed, 30pc consumed at home and the rest - 7pc fed to calves.  Despite this significant contribution to the national and household incomes, the dairy industry is faced with a number of technical, economical and institutional problems which seems to have escalated in the recent past.

Currently, more than all the 20 registered processors handle the rest of the market share and New Kenya Co-operative Creameries Ltd still plays a big part of total milk supply from farmers.

As an industry the desire should be  to see the continued growth and development of the dairy sector with increasing incomes to the farmers and improved quality of final products to the consumers at the most competitive prices while making a decent return on our investments.

Pasteurization
Pasteurization is a unit operation directed towards prevention of microbial growth of pathogenic and spoilage microorganisms through their removal or inactivation and is used to extend shelf-life of foods.

Traditionally, the food industry used heat to pasteurize foods. In current times, where the role of the consumer has become leading and necessary, food production systems are no longer supply-driven but become more demand-driven.

As a result of consumer demands for foods that are fresher, more natural, or minimally processed and additive-free, new physical methods of treatment are emerging for shelf-life extension and are under broad development. The application of novel technologies has also led to the new definition of this unit operation.

Nothing to write home about, 48 years after independence.

As we celebrated Madaraka day this year I was reminded of the famous pledge, Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya's first President, made to Kenyans in 1963, which was to spearhead the fight against poverty, ignorance and disease. Our leaders have knocked themselves off the pedestal and be best be described as a labyrinth of corrupt fellows.

Fourty eight years after that promise, the most noticeable achievement has been in education. At independence, access to education for the African population was for  the rich Most were restricted to basic education with a substantial number of school goers being directed to vocational education for skilled work and trades.

Now, nearly all Kenyans of primary school age attend primary school and almost seventy per cent of them proceed to secondary school. Unlike in the sixties when an average of one youth per constituency joined university, most constituencies now send over two hundred of them to public and private universities each year.

Expansion has come with challenges; a decline in quality due to inadequate inputs, unequal access to quality education and educated unemployment. Health care has also improved with a health facility in most administrative areas.

However treatment, especially for referral cases (cancer treatment, surgery, dialysis for the poor) and medical staff remain key a tall order. Having been content with what was put in place by the colonial government almost fourty years into independence, much progress is being witnessed in the area of infrastructure development, especially roads.

Meanwhile, poor planning, insensitivity to the farmer's problems and population pressure, have limited significant growth in the country's main economic activity; agriculture. As a result, and with increasing youth unemployment, endemic poverty remains our biggest challenge. Compared to 1963, a higher percentage of Kenyans now live below the poverty line.

Unpredictable weather is not to blame for our poverty; the trouble is almost fourty years of misrule. Ironically, Jomo Kenyatta started the slide back to the very ills he declared to fight in 1963 by entrenching dictatorship and a culture where his top leadership was more about itself than the citizens.

That is why he had the courage to challenge nationalists like Bildad Kaggia to show what they had done (looted?) for themselves as individuals, when along with Jaramogi Odinga, they advocated for a more meaningful Uhuru for the majority of Kenyans. The Mau Mau nationalists who fought for political and economic liberation were brutalized and marginalized by successive African governments, in which some of those who collaborated with the colonizer have been prominent.

Many of those liberation heroes died poor while those alive are struggling for basic survival for themselves and family. Over the years, Kenya's privileged political elite have survived by entrenching dictatorship, sycophancy,arrogance,vainglory,ostentation and tribal divisions to fend off any challenge to their authority. The onset of multi party democracy in 1992 did not improve matters much because enemies of genuine change infiltrated multi party government.

The current constitution provides us with a second chance to make a more dramatic break with poverty, ignorance and disease; but only if we lock out, from the post 2012 leadership, elements that invest in the status quo. Otherwise, the more things will change the more they will remain the same!Just as its said we only manage to change the forest but the monkeys are the same

What is it, with this word impunity?

I have been in Kenya long enough to realized that the word 'impunity' carries a weight of meanings and implications.  
When people say impunity they are usually thinking of a network of interrelated problems:  corruption in high places, weakness in the judicial systems, lack of effective oversight or control of some police actions, and the link between money, politics, and the courts which means senior people are never successfully prosecuted.
So if impunity means people not being held to account for their actions, the last weeks have been good for the fight against it.   A long-running extradition request from Kenya led to the arrest of Mr Yagnesh Devani in London.  Two extradition requests were presented by the territory of Jersey to Kenya in a money laundering case (Mr Samuel Gichuru and Mr Chris Okemo).  
Coincidentally, elsewhere in the world,  last week also saw the arrest of Ratko Mladic in Serbia on war crimes charges outstanding since the civil war of the 1990s, and also the arrest of a suspect in genocide charges from Rwanda. Of course, all these individuals are innocent until proven guilty.  But accountability, the flip-side of impunity, includes the ability for people to be tried fairly in front of a court when accused. 
The same applies in the International Criminal Court cases on post-election violence in Kenya (and I note that the court  threw out the argument by the Kenyan government, against the wishes of the majority of the population, that these cases should not be admitted to the ICC).    In all these cases, the interests of justice are that individuals accused of crimes should go through a fair and thorough judicial process.  If found not guilty, they will leave with their reputations restored.

For the law to be implemented fairly, one of the key factors is not just what happens inside the courtroom, but what happens outside - in particular to protect witnesses and victims from intimidation, violence and inducement.   It is disturbing that there are so many indications of this happening in the ICC cases - and other cases in Kenya.   The State has a responsibility to all those victims and witnesses.

As Kenya takes important steps towards judicial reform, and seeks to overcome obstacles of political controversy and obstruction of reform, it's important to remember the powerful message sent by the passing of Kenya's new constitution - that ultimately this is all about the rule of law, and that countries which follow the rule of law prosper, while those who fall away from it do not.

Rulings by Justice Musinga are not skewed!

Daniel Musinga's ruling on the Kamukunji by-election is high relief as he granted an order of injunction restraining the Interim Independent Electoral Commission and the returning officer for Kamukunji Constituency from conducting the parliamentary by-election which was scheduled for May 23.
 

 The judgment has been highly criticized by many who say he issued it at the last minute when the constituents were ready for a new change of governance that will uplift the constituency from rags to riches due to its high potential for development.

His 32-page ruling is one among the many that Justice Musinga has made basing on the new constitution. After keenly reading and analysing other rulings delivered by Justice Musinga since the new Constitution was promulgated on August 27, I find that he has been consistent in upholding the spirit and letter of the New Constitution especially guided by the interpretation role of the court in Article 258 and the National Values.

The Kamukunji ruling is not an isolated case but part of a wider scheme to create jurisprudence and precedents in the first year of the New Constitution. Justice Musinga's judgement was in favour of Paul Waweru Mwangi who brought the petition against the respondent (The Interim Independent Electoral Commission and Masindet Joseph Leboo, The Returning Officer Kamukunji Constituency) on a number of grounds including that the nomination of candidates was conducted in violation of his rights to be a candidate as enshrined under Article 38(3) of the Constitution.

Justice Musinga is well known for upholding the constitution and he exercises his duties for the Kenyan people especially those denied justice. A related case that he presided over was Petition 9 of 2011 which involved a Member of Parliament Eugene Wamalwa who had been denied permission to hold a public rally. Justice Musinga noted that the court is enjoined to interpret the Constitution in a manner that promotes its purpose, values and principles without fear, favour, affection or ill will.

His judgments and rulings are highly welcomed as it shows that everyone is equal before the law regardless of his race, ethnic back ground, and social statues everyone has a right to participate in political activities.
This incident has put to light the injustice that is cropping in the electoral processes that impede the implementation of the new constitution to ensure justice is exercised to all.

The IIEC should recruit better returning officers and conduct elections as required by the Constitution and other laws. But the biggest question is;is the constitution there to serve us or are we there to serve it? This is a question for another day that we shall seek to address