• 'The greatness of any nation lies in its fidelity to constitution and adherence to the rule of law and above all respect of God'.
• Any dispensation that is inclined to return us to state of servility, silence and complacency must be refused in the way we see fit.
American novelist James Baldwin once wrote that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.
In the recent disturbing instances in which the government has demonstrated flagrant disregard of court orders, Baldwin’s assertion best mirrors a people ruled by ignorant minority — despots.
The people whom we have trusted with political power are card-carrying state projects to whom orders from “above” is like the Ten Commandments.
Last week, the police defied a court order instructing that Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria be released citing separate orders from above. In the same week, the government placed a red alert on lawyer Miguna Miguna, thus frustrating the exiled self-proclaimed NRM general’s efforts to fly back into the country
This trend by the government to construe the law in the context of its own choosing is an indication of an authoritarian form of governance that Kenya could plunge, again. No Kenyan wants to go back there, except, of course, sympathizers of the system.
The world has lurched from the clutches of one fanatic or despot to another, from Africa to Europe to South America, throughout history. And we have had our fair share of the evils that come with them.
Any dispensation that is inclined to return us to state of servility, silence and complacency must be refused in the way we see fit.
To defy court orders is to institutionalize anarchy. It’s to usher lawlessness. Thoughtless, self-righteous, hypocritical, arrogant, misogynist state officers who perpetrate these evils must be called out.
No Kenyan is more citizen than the other. Nobody, even the president, is above the law. And Kenya, as they say, is above all of us. Therefore, the government should unconditionally allow Miguna Miguna back into the country the same way it deported him before it can lecture us on building bridges.
Meaningful bridges can only be achieved if we embrace political tolerance by preaching water and drinking the same water. Otherwise the interpretation of BBI report will remain what it is; a trojan horse.
Miguna, like all Kenyans, has the right to orient himself politically with whichever faction he chooses to. He has the right to speak his truth without persecution.
Kenya will not achieve its potential if she accommodates impunity and disloyalty to the law. No country has.
To echo the words of Chief Justice David Maraga during his historic ruling in September 2017; the greatness of any nation lies in its fidelity to constitution and adherence to the rule of law and above all respect of God. These truths ought to permeate into state officers in breach of court orders.
Journalism student at Multimedia University of Kenya