As we mark the first aniversary after the promulgation of our new constitution the rule of law must prevail

Its is exactly one year after the promulgation of our new Constitution.  The National Charter has ushered in unprecedented change in our society within a very short span of time.  It has given Kenya a face lift.Only our genius and resilience as a country made it possible for us to adopt a new Constitution in peace-time after the experience of the 2007/2008 violence.  For me, the new Covenant is a guarantee that the Kenyan people shall henceforth resolve any potential conflict through the rule of law.

Those who have watched Kenya keenly have witnessed the onset of fundamental changes in the last twelve months.  New institutions have been established through which we shall deepen our democracy.  The Commission for the Implementation of the Constitution is a new body whose central function is to monitor, facilitate and oversee the development of legislation and administrative procedures required to implement the Constitution.

The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights and the National Commission on Gender and Development were merged to serve as one commission charged with the task of safeguarding human rights and equality concerns.We established the Constitutional Implementation Oversight Committee of Parliament whose key mandate is to co-ordinate with the Attorney General, the Commission on the Implementation of the Constitution and relevant parliamentary committees to ensure the timely introduction and passage of the legislation required by the Constitution.

Once the Constitution was adopted at the referendum last year, all designated State officers took a fresh oath to defend and act in accordance with the Constitution.

Fellow Kenyans, we established a new Judicial Service Commission which has briskly embarked on renewing Kenya’s judiciary.  It has so far recommended for my appointment the Chief Justice, the Deputy Chief Justice, Supreme Court Judges, and Judges of the High Court.  We are on the road to reforming our judiciary. A new Chief Justice and his Deputy are now firmly in place to offer leadership to our independent judicial branch.The Interim Independent Boundaries Commission was retired by the Constitution.  We are in the process of recruiting members of the Independent Electoral ad Boundaries Commission.  This is the Commission on whose shoulders the responsibility of managing the 2012 general elections will fall.

The Vetting of Judges and Magistrates Board has been nominated and is awaiting final approval by the National Assembly.  This Board will bear monumental responsibility because it must professionally and fairly vet all serving judges and magistrates.Other institutions that have been established include the Salaries and Remuneration Commission, and the Commission for Revenue Authority.  The former commission will henceforth determine the emoluments and other benefits which accrue to public and state officers.  The latter will develop recommendations to Parliament regarding the division of the national budget between national and county levels .The process of recruiting a new Attorney-General, Controller of Budget and Auditor-General are firmly in place.

The opportunity of our new Constitution has presented another opportunity.  We are also renewing the ordinary laws of Kenya.  Indeed we are refurbishing our legal system.  Few countries in the world ever get the rare opportunity to fundamentally renew their legal system.Many institutions that have collaborated to achieve the passage of the laws needed to implement the constitution.  These institutions are specialist Task Forces; line ministries; the Kenya Law Reform Commission; The Commission on the Implementation of the Constitution; the Constitutional Implementation Oversight Committee of the National Assembly; the Attorney General’s office; Cabinet; and the National Assembly.  As Kenyans we owe a great debt to these institutions.  Their exemplary work has passed the message that no stone should be left unturned in our endeavor to implement our constitution.

Fellow Kenyans, a few challenges have presented themselves in the task of implementing our constitution.  We have not kept one or two deadlines in terms of appointment of officials due to unforeseen circumstances.  However we overcame the initial teething problems and are now endeavoring to strictly observe the schedule in our constitutional implementation process.Once in a while differences of opinion among the multiple actors charged with the implementation of the constitution will arise.  These must be resolved amicably.  Together we must focus on what is best for Kenya.  Harmony is absolutely an imperative as we entrench our new constitution through legislative and other measures.

There are Bills that must be developed and passed within the time frame of one and a half years, two years, three years, four years and five years after the promulgation of the Constitution.  We must embark on finalizing the next round of legislations.  Time is still of the essence.  There are other important Bills expected to be passed by the Constitution for which no deadline exists.  We must also work on these.The Constitution requires that we put in place all the new commissions that it has established.  This is an urgent matter that the government is addressing.Its good to emphasize that as the judiciary is renewed through the vetting process, the rules of natural justice should be strictly adhered to.  Kenya needs a corrupt free and professional judiciary as well as a judiciary that is confident in the discharge of its duties.

I sense change all around in Kenya. We are living in exciting times.  Those who come after us will envy us.  They will see that we were brave to embrace change.  I am clear in mind that implementing the Constitution is the other side of the coin of implementing Vision 2030.  I also know my dream of transforming Kenya into a working nation will be realized as we implement our new Constitution and Vision 2030.The enduring inheritance that we shall bequeath to the youth of our society is the new Constitution.  I say so because the new Constitution has totally transformed the socio-economic and political landscape of our country for the better.Kenyans now enjoy one of the most robust Bills Of Rights in the world.  The county governments will potentially percolate investment and general development to the grassroots.  Separation of powers is truly entrenched within the fabric of our governmental system.

Land and other national resources will be protected more efficaciously.  Leadership will be squarely brought under constitutional spotlight.  Kenyans can be citizens of the world.  A new senate will supplement the current national assembly.  The executive will be outside of Parliament.  Cabinet and Principal Secretaries will be professionals who give all their working time to government departments.  The President will be chosen by a majority of Kenyans.The Supreme Court will be the guardian of our Constitution. National security organs will be subjected to civilian oversight.  Public finance will be exposed to strict accountability.  The Constitution establishes national principles and values that describe our country’s vision. We must embrace these.

I am proud to be a Kenyan during this momentous period of our growth as a country.   We preferred the route of change based on a national consensus.  Many Kenyans have also been part of debating the new laws that we are making to implement our Constitution.  I salute you all.  This is a demonstration of commendable civic duty.I challenge Kenyans that we henceforth follow the Constitution we have made for ourselves regardless of our station in life.  We must become a country ruled by law.

The lessons of USA dwindling economic fortunes

Thomas Friedman's editorial, published in the New York Times last week, offers some very vital lessons for political regimes worldwide on the importance of unity in the face of national crises.  Headlined “Win Together or Lose Together”, the piece pricks the conscience of the squabbling politicians in the US in the wake of dwindling economic fortunes, following the downgrading of the superpower’s creditworthiness.Friedman’s piece, I opine, is the one of the most powerful editorial pieces so far written anywhere in the 21st century, for it contains vital lessons about national crises, political unity and the national interest for all nations, particularly Kenya.

Regarding America’s current economic crisis, Mr Friedman,  author of the famous book The World is Flat, cautions: “Something this big and complex cannot be accomplished by one party alone. It will require the kind of collective action usually reserved for national emergencies. The sooner we pull together the better”.The far-reaching implications of the downgrading of the US economy’s creditworthiness a week ago are mind-boggling. They constitute a latent global crisis. The verdict was passed by the global sovereign debt ratings firm known as Standard & Poor’s. The firm cited the US budget deficit, the biggest in human history, and the internal political climate as the main reasons for the low economic status.The downgrade was met with massive criticism and assorted cries of pain from the Obama administration. The US still has an AAA rating from other global sovereign debt ratings agencies. But the fear remains that one or two of them could follow Standard & Poor’s unprecedented lead. The United States is the world’s biggest economy at a GDP of US$15.003 trillion (at July 29, 2011, according to an International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimate).And yet America came within an inch of defaulting on its debt a week ago. It is also the single largest debtor on this planet and in history, for purely political adversarial reasons. Only the 27 combined economies of the European Union generate a bigger GDP, calculated by the IMF at US$16,228.23 trillion in 2010.

The EU’s biggest economy is Germany, at US$2.4 trillion, followed by France, at US$1.9 trillion, and the United Kingdom, at US$1.6 trillion. Africa’s combined GDP is only equal to the UK, at US$1.6 trillion, although this continent of a billion people has a potential greater than that by far. According to the latest (2009-10) IMF figures, the richest three African countries by GDP generation are South Africa (US$ 357.259 billion), Egypt (US$ 218.466 billion) and Nigeria (US$ 216.803billion).Thinking about billions is hard enough for the vast majority of ordinary folk. But trillions are simply out of this world. For instance, an hour has 60 seconds, but you are not a billion seconds old until you are 32 years old, which means the vast majority of Kenyans now alive are not yet one billion seconds old.

This also means that famous old-timers like Nelson Mandela, who is 93, Charles Njonjo, who is 91, and President Kibaki, who is a comparative youngster at 80, are not yet three billion seconds old. But a trillion simply boggles the mind.  If America had defaulted on its debt, the world economy would have been  in a truly terrible mess. And yet it almost happened, largely due to the age-old political rivalry between the Democratic Party, which is now in power, and the Republican Party.

The size of the US debt is simply staggering. As of August 3, 2011,  the gross was $14.34 trillion, of which $9.78 trillion was held by the public and $4.56 trillion was in intra-governmental holdings. Wikipedia defines the US government debt as “… the money borrowed by the federal government of the United States at any one time through the issue of securities by the Treasury and other federal government agencies”.

The US public debt “… is securities held by investors outside the federal government, including that held by the Federal Reserve System and state and local governments. This is the net public debt”. A week ago the Republican Party almost pushed the US into defaulting on its debt repayment pledges, a move that would have had catastrophic economic and social consequences across the planet. The single biggest holder of US debt is China, with more than US$2 trillion.

Part of the Republican Party’s intransigence on the matter was driven by what can only be called tribalism writ large. Some Republicans have never forgiven themselves for the fact that the party lost the 2008 presidential election and that the majority of Americans elected the first African-American, Barack Obama, as president.The racists inside the Republican Party were completely reconciled to the idea of the US defaulting on its vast debt and throwing the world into a tailspin of crises. And all this only to make the puny, petty, petulant and repugnant point that it happened under the watch of a black President.  Mr Friedman’s call for united bipartisan political responsibility at a time of national crisis is instructive for its level-headed definition of the problem:

“Our slow decline is a product of two inter-related problems. First, we’ve let our five basic pillars of growth erode since the end of the Cold War – education, infrastructure, immigration of high-IQ innovators and entrepreneurs, rules to incentivise risk-taking and start-ups, and government-funded research to spur science and technology”.

This, indeed, is the tenor and language of Vision 2030, Kenya’s own national economic and development blueprint and road map towards a middle-level economy.  America’s current economic crisis and Friedman’s timely caution are enough reasons why Kenya must ring-fence the Vision 2030 and all its flagship projects against petty political squabbles!

UK riots and the underlying issues

As I write this blog I am reminded of the fact that,there is no perfect society and that in every society regardless of economic robustness there are underlying issues. I am on record in this very blog saying that UK and USA could be the next battlefronts after the Arab world. But what is really happening in London? Are we really cognizant of what is happening? This is how I argue my case;

London  is in a state of shock and surprise,nobody envisaged what is happening now .However, those in tune with the economic situation in the UK and the  government spending cuts will tell you this was a time bomb. It was only a matter of time before all hell broke lose.While the riots are quite scary and have even escalated to mugging, they’re some who say there’s a sense of excitement about what’s going on in England. The scenes are similar to almost what happened in the Arab world and similar to Kenya's 2007/2008 post election violence. The queen's country, England is beginning to resemble Greece, Tunisia, and other countries that have witnessed recent uprisings due to the state of the economy.Now, if I  correctly recall, the uprising in Tunisia was sparked off by a young man setting himself a blaze because he was being arrested for selling vegetables by the roadside; his alternate means for employment as he couldn't find work.

Although the riots in London were set off by an apparent gunfire exchange between the police and a young man, it was just a trigger that the rioting youth needed to vent out their frustrations that stem from the economic conditions and the lack of jobs.

Scenes from London

The MP for Tottenham (where the riots first broke out) David Lammy described the looters as mindless youth. Many of the politicians who have spoken on television and radio have condemned the riots and termed it as opportunistic criminal behaviour.  This clearly shows that the leaders in UK have knocked themselves off the pedestal.It pretentious and hypocritical , as a government, on the one hand to support youth protests in other countries calling them uprisings while terming riots in its country as gang crime. Is it that this government fails to see a similarity to Tunisia or Egypt in terms of a ruling class that is making the prospects of the lower class much dimmer?

The youth in UK have no jobs, government spending cuts to the public sector have seen many lose their jobs, and the recent university fee increase now leaves these young people with no hope of getting higher education.

Some would argue that there are youth, who also have no jobs but have not taken to the streets.

Former London mayor Ken Livingston said that this is the first time since World War II where young people in this country are in a situation where they have no hope of finding work, buying a house and even getting an education.

However, this is a percentage of the youth who have no hope at all and perhaps feel like they have nothing to lose. But instead of the leaders just dismissing the protesters as criminals maybe they need to first listen to their grievances.

Politicians should know that,days of political party patronage are over

The Kenyan electorate and aspirants for elective posts are relieved of the burden of electing candidates imposed on them by “tribal chiefs” in charge of registered political parties since the country reverted to competitive politics 19 years ago. Voters can now abandon parties in preference to independents in future contests.Direct nominations enjoyed by lawmakers, party officials, their relatives and sycophants will be things of the past as are the imposition of candidates on the electorate in elections. Such nominations made multiparty democracy a mockery.

Victims of cruel decisions by party chiefs celebrated the coming into being of the new constitution that could also make the parties truly political ideological formations, instead of personal properties.

The good news is contained in the clauses whose primary aim is to level the playing field and to open doors for aspirants locked out of contests by party barons year in year out.

According to the supreme law, State Officers that include Members of Parliament and Ministers are banned from holding party posts. In addition, aspirants could in future vie for elections as independents.  Already, one presidential aspirant has declared to stand as independent candidate in the 2012 polls.The lawmakers argue that they are not State Officers and should hence be exempted from the ban. Already, parliamentary party leaders are threatening to breach the sections of the Constitution that could have helped inculcate discipline and internal democracy within registered political entities.

Unlike in the days of yore, many aspirants have been disenfranchised in the advent of multi – party contests by intolerant and dictatorial leaders who have been masquerading as democrats.  In the olden days, with a few exceptions, any number of candidates could be considered for nomination on  the only  party  then, Kenya African National  Union (KANU).

In the run up to the referendum  on the new Constitution, the parties were more interested on Executive  power and ignored other glaring flaws in the document that have suddenly been discovered. Now one can understand why parliamentary party leaders are up in arms against stand taken by the Commission for the Implementation of the Constitution (CIC) that insists on the ratification of the document to the letter.

Other than a joint opposition succeeding to get one of their own to State House in 2002  after two unsuccessful attempts, parties are mere election machines  and neither are they reform tools. Unfortunately, none of the existing parties has a position on any national issue as manifested in their deafening silence over serious matters as the ongoing reforms, the escalating cost of living and runaway inflation. Without party posts, some of the leaders would not have seen inside the legislature and, or become ministers in their lifetime.

In the yesteryear campaigns for the re-introduction of competitive politics in Kenya, reformists of those days accused KANU of dictatorial habits but twenty years later, the so called reformists have proved no better than their political foes in the party that ruled  the country for four decades.

So, the question now at hand is – what is the remarkable difference between KANU and its opponents in the multi party set up?  The answer is little if any.  Only names, symbols and flags distinguish these entities. In short they are nowhere ideologically distinct from the other nor are they qualitatively different  in their socio-economic and political programs;  their manifestoes hold  a telling story about their commonalities.

Fate that befell  the Lancaster House Independence political agreement , later  renamed  Kenya Constitution awaits the new constitution which could suffer another mutilation in the  hands of lawmakers. One can be sure that a flood of proposed changes could fill the  Clerks tray  because many state and public officers find the said clauses unpalatable as they  deny  them  the  comfort of getting away with murder including increasing their salaries and refusal to pay taxes.

The contemplated changes  are meant to suit circumstances as has been the case in the past.  One such amendment contemplated is to be engineered  in restructuring the Political Parties Act.

Good leaders must be good in speech delivery

No dictator in living memory has been a great orator. Dictators cannot be bothered to be of any kind of service to their subjects or mankind in general. Indeed, they hold the populations that they oppress and misrule in total contempt. Distinctive, well-prepared, inspirational, motivational and memorable speech-writing and delivery involve a process of very hard work and commitment.And this holds true whether the orator involved is a preacher giving a sermon or a president marshalling citizens to a national cause.Dictators deliberately deliver speeches that are meant to frighten, scare or even bore people to tears. The idea is reduce their audiences to inaction through lifeless, monotonous and dull soliloquies. 


The 1976 Nobel Literature Laureate, Saul Bellow, hit the nail on the head in his novel Humboldt’s Gift when he observed: “Boredom is an instrument of social control. Power is the authority to impose boredom, to command stasis, to combine this stasis with anguish. The real tedium, deep tedium, is seasoned with terror and with death”. Great speech writing and delivery are key ingredients of good leadership. And in every great leader, there is a great speaker and a great speechwriter. Leaders should frequently deliver inspirational speeches and not boring prepared statements that make their deliverers drone, bray and send audiences to sleep.“Commanding stasis” is a shameful and inept thing for leaders to do to their audiences, even for half-an-hour. It is a terrible waste of time for everybody involved, from a small roomful of people to stadia teeming with crowds. 


The most likeable, admirable and awesome thing about American President Barack Obama is not the colour of his skin, or that he is the first man with that pigmentation to be the tenant of the White House. No, the amount of melanin in his skin has nothing to do with it. Obama’s truly inspirational and even motivational speech-making is the secret of his success and gravitational pull both in America and in the wider world.Obama moves people far beyond America with his speeches. 


And it is clear that his speeches are well researched, prepared, rehearsed and delivered in a process that involves the most rigorous hard work and commitment. You remember what Obama has said long after he said it. He delivers with conviction, always ending the speeches with a crescendo ‘God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.’ Obama creates a connection with his audience right from the word Go. From his ‘hello everybody’ to the occasional wide smile, to the great quotes and mentioning of names of individuals present, he comes out as a man who is in touch with his audiences.Obama never takes his listeners for granted. Neither do all great leaders. They take the greatest care to make a good, attractive and lasting impression because they believe in what they say, mean what they say and say what they mean. What’s more, they deliver speeches not only for their live audiences but with an eye on posterity and the global audience. Obama comes in the tradition of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Dr Martin Luther King Jnr, John F. Kennedy, Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln, Francis Bacon, Edmund Burke and Caius Julius Caesar.Even if we restrict the list only to African-Americans, Obama still keeps the greatest and most admirable company among orators.He comes in the great tradition of the Rev Henry Highland Garnet, whose heyday was in the 1840s and who is described to this day as having had a “golden throat”. The golden-throated Garnet is most famous for his “Address to the Slaves of the United States of America,” delivered at the National Convention of Coloured Citizens in 1843: “Awake! Awake; millions of voices are calling you! Your dead fathers speak to you from their graves. Heaven, as with a voice of thunder, calls on you to arise from the dust”. Africa too has had its share of world-class speech-makers who moved millions, among them the late Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere and Kwame Nkrumah, who were great writers, polemicists and orators even before they entered high office. But this critical genre of leadership is slowly fading away at a time when it is needed most.Remember Obama arrived on the scene in America at the end of the lacklustre George W. Bush decade, with the War on Terror and two hot wars raging in Iraq and Afghanistan and amidst the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. But he appeared as a beacon light of hope. ‘Yes we Can’ was the clarion call of his political campaigns that revived the hopes of Americans to rediscover the greatness of their nation.

And on the election night after the results were declared Obama sent Americans wild with more inspiration, hope and belief in a new dawn; “If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is the place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founding fathers is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.”

Moving forward, Kenyans will need re-energising by inspirational leaders who will give a message of hope and renewal. Our new constitutional dawn and infrastructural rebirth are both threatened by the phenomenon of a shilling in free fall, looming recession and runaway price hikes inimical to decent living.

The next generation of leaders will be required to move masses into action, give hope and make Kenyans active participants in the nation building process. Such leaders will have to match their words with actions. Kenyans are waiting.

Mswati is bankrupting his kingdom in his expensive lifestyle!

King Mswati III is sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch and certainly the only royal who can lay claim to bankrupting his nation in the modern age.
This bling-loving King is one of the reasons why Swaziland has recently had to ask South Africa for a financial bailout as it sinks into insolvency.
According to 2010 figures, Swaziland’s spendthrift King had a net worth, based on investments and land, of $100 million in a country where the GDP is $4.1 million.
This may seem like a lot, and it is in relation to the national GDP, but when you compare it to the $18 billion fortune of the King of Saudi Arabia, or the $15 billion net worth of the Emir of Abu Dhabi, it isn’t.
Because of this, it seems the Swazi King has an inferiority complex in the way he spends his ‘modest’ sum, splurging on unnecessary expenses.
The man loves fast cars, luxury palaces and extravagant parties. In 2008, he reportedly spent $2.5 million on joint celebrations for 40 years of Swaziland’s independence and his 40th birthday.
Mswati III also seeks to look prestigious by over-the-top national spending, such as the $90.86 million dished out on a new international airport.
Shopping sprees

In April 2010, the Swaziland Solidarity Network, a forum which seeks to support democratic institutions in the nation, did a breakdown of the King’s annual spending over the last few years. Here are some of the highlights;

• $229m recurrent budget for the Swazi National Treasury under the King’s office
• $72.3m for royal houses and $72.3m for link roads to the royal palace
• $137.5m for official royal trips by the King
• $7.2m for a Rolls Royce Phantom to his endless list of luxury cars

But it’s not all about the King. We mustn’t forget that the Mswati clan includes 14 wives, as well as a vast number of 'hangers-on' who have a sense of entitlement.
Each of these ladies has a million-dollar palace built for them, BMWs and personal staff, and almost anything else they desire. They also frequently indulge in overseas shopping sprees by private jet.
In 2009, it is reported that five of the King’s wives went on a foreign shopping spree, spending $86.8m in the process. 

Private accounts
Bear in mind that this is happening in a country with the highest HIV/Aids prevalence of any in the world and the lowest life expectancy rate, but no money to deal with these issues.
The King’s personal secretary, Sam Mkhombe, has gone out of his way to clarify that some of the spending is from the Mswati’s private accounts. But the country is suffering from serious financial issues!
Early in 2010, the Swazi Government had ordered 14 per cent cuts across departments to prevent the nation from going bankrupt. Though this strained some departments, such as Education whose ability to provide care for vulnerable children was impaired, it did not include a reduction in expenditure by the Royal family. 

Furthermore, in February this year, the King received a 23 per cent increase in his budget when just about every government department had to cut by 20 per cent.
It appears the King does not concern himself with the suffering of his population, brought on by public expenditure cuts. He has pleaded with South Africa to lend a helping hand with a $1.4billion bailout, but many critics see it as nothing but a front for self aggrandisement.
If anything, the money would probably vanish without producing any long-term benefits for the citizens.

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.