Chief Justice nominee Martha Koome, if confirmed, would have to decide between serving the public or pandering to vested interests.
Few would begrudge the judge the call to national duty. Her nomination is celebrated as a credit for gender parity. Her performance should disabuse stereotype-inspired prejudices.
Justice Koome is, however, a beneficiary of a system that speaks from both sides of the mouth. But she is not responsible for her appointment. She should not be caned for her propulsion to the top of the Judiciary.
Cynics wonder how history will judge the decade of President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto, as the Jubilee regime enters the home straight of its fractious rule. The tragedy is that, some of the 2022 presidential options are equally beholden to anarchic ambitions, indiscipline, and insubordination.
The DP may have been sidelined from the Executive, but he is still peeing in looking out. He was elected alongside the President, and he often belabours the obvious, without recognising and owning the muddle of Jubilee priorities.
The shared presidency needs to consider whether it's uniting the country, or paying lip service to national unity. Facts do not show a deliberate attempt to Kenyanise top public offices.
Again, President Uhuru Kenyatta, a genial leader, may not be responsible for the discordance between appearances and actions. If he does not know, then he should listen to dissenting public views. He was elected as a symbol of national unity. He should not abdicate this delegated authority.
The discordance between speech and action is likely to exacerbate despondency among communities. The one practical way to unite a country that is still struggling for nationhood after about six decades of Independence, is national inclusion.
Every region of this country can generate wealth, as much as they have a right to consume. Their unique comparative advantages can trigger national reconstruction.
Largely, productive resources are invested in one side of the county, as the other Kenya hurts from the fatalism of marginalisation. Forget equitable regeneration and sharing of resources, which the 2010 Constitution belabours. The skew is blamed on poor leadership and skewed priorities.
But system apologists are still blaming colonists for Kenya's strangled potential.
People feel excluded when the software of national reconstruction – community or ethnic relations – is abused. Post-Independence Kenyan leaders destroyed the hardware and the software. The trend continues.
The UhuRuto team, which was marketed in 2013 as dynamic, young, and digital, is analogue. The regime is beholden to vested interests, even as it preaches national reconciliation.
The choice of Koome as the next CJ does not support national integration, even if it may be futuristic. It now means that all three arms of government are headed by people from the Mt Kenya region. The CJ nominee joins the huge regional ensemble in top appointive public offices.
The Executive, the Legislature, and the Judiciary are under the control of public officers from the Gikuyu, Embu, and Meru communities. It's Gema's season to shine – the third time under a third president from Central Kenya. Or shall we say it's their time to eat? When will other Kenyans dish?
President Kenyatta, House Speaker Justin Muturi, Attorney General Kihara Kariuki, House Majority leader Amos Kimunya, Central Bank of Kenya Governor Patrick Njoroge and Kenya Revenue Authority Director General James Githii Mburu, among other key officers, are from one region.
The dearth of information around Chief Justice David Maraga succession is also incriminating. Senior Counsel Fred Ngatia claims four JSC members from Mt Kenya selected the Chief Justice nominee. He claims they cut his scores, while raising Koome's.
Koome’s arrival, again, should not lead to the ejection of Deputy Chief Justice Philomena Mwilu. The claim of one woman too many would expose the plot to erase the memories of the Supreme Court bench that nullified the 2017 presidential election.
The official scorecard has not been published. But cynics have shared an alternative version. The information may not be authentic, but the JSC has not given its version. That it is trending shows national discordance. Koome's welcome, after all, is not universal. She will have to justify her pick.
