Thanks be to God that on December 1, I returned to the senate after seven months.
This was after a nine-month legal battle that was determined by the High Court on November 24.
The court ruled my expulsion from the Jubilee Party and the decision to uphold the same by the Political Parties Disputes Tribunal was unlawful.
1 John 5:14 says if we ask anything according to His will, He will hear us.
Further, Job 14:7-9 says “at least there is hope for a tree. If it is cut down, it will sprout again, and its new shoots will not fail. Its roots may grow old in the ground and its stump die in the soil, yet at the scent of water, it will bud and put forth shoots like a plant”.
I want to encourage anyone out there that there is a God of second chance. Many people, including my political detractors, had written me off and thought this was indeed the end of my political career.
Others had appropriated progress and the essence of being unto themselves but its only God who anoints, appoints and disappoints leaders. No man has that capacity.
This is a win for the rule of law.
As Meles Zenawi put it, “the rule of law is the basis for any democracy, and without the rule of law in democracy, you have chaos”.
We cannot build the foundations of a state without the rule of law. Stockwell Day aptly puts it that his country, Canada, is founded upon principles that recognise the supremacy of God and the rule of law.
I would want to reiterate the same by stating that Kenya, too, is founded upon the supremacy of God and the rule of law.
My being in the Senate is unlikely because it has never happened in Kenya's history that a seat can be declared vacant, a replacement gazetted, yet a reinstatement is occasioned by a court ruling.
This is a novelty, indeed a landmark ruling that sets precedence going forward in not only protecting the independence of Parliament, but also ensuring that nobody shall be victimised purely based on their political opinion or association.
Article 38 of the Constitution gives every citizen the right to freedom of association and it’s therefore inconceivable that this can be criminalised to the extent that one ends up losing their seat in Parliament.
This precedent should, therefore, serve as a warning that the Constitution will stand tall in ensuring this democratic right is protected.
My political witch-hunt was fomented due to my clamor for equal opportunity for all Kenyans. This was born of my long struggle to represent the voiceless and underprivileged Kenyans in and outside the chamber.
This realisation occurred to me in a eureka moment that no matter how hard I fought for them to be included in society, such inclusion would only be token as long as the equal opportunity for all citizens wasn’t realised.
This calls upon all Kenyans to keep eternal vigilance, rise up and speak when such space is infringed upon, for inequality somewhere is inequality everywhere. Likewise freedom somewhere is freedom everywhere.
When we claim our freedom and equality, those who are used to privilege see this as oppression. They should be reminded that equality for all guarantees a safer environment for them as well since one doesn’t have to look over the shoulder depending on who is in power.
As I said before, my being here today is unlikely.
A young boy born nearly 40 years ago in Kiambu District Hospital, to a single mother, who was abandoned on account of having a child who looked different due albinism, had a dream that one day he would become a respectable member of society.
My mother worked as a farm hand in our local MP’s shamba, lying me down to sleep under a banana tree as she tilled the land with others. Yet as I grew up, I had a dream that I, too, would one day become an MP.
Many found this unachievable but I am today the first person with albinism to serve in the National Assembly and the Senate.
To some, this opportunity to participate in decision-making on an equal basis with others means that the typical stereotype of the underprivileged must subsist. That we must remain meek, subservient, apologetic and reconciled to gratitude occasioned by the very opportunity to serve.
I want to remind them that we have fought very hard to have this representation, and that the special seats are constitutional — not tokens to appease to political patronage.
Political parties are only custodians but not owners of special seats, if only to guarantee representation of equal citizens who would otherwise not make it to be represented.
As such, it’s of utmost importance that such representation be robustly safeguarded to ensure active and full participation of representatives of special interests groups in all legislatures.
This will ensure protection of their constituents' human rights and fundamental freedoms since their representation is the essence of their presence in Parliament.
Political parties are the legal vehicles through which a group of like-minded individuals are able to capture power through legal means. However, they have had a history of not surviving the next general election, degenerating into pale shadows of their former selves.
This is largely due to lack of internal party democracy that enables them to outgrow the founder’s syndrome. Some view them as personal property rather than public institutions for nurturing our nascent democracy, in spite of funding from the taxpayers.
It’s, therefore, important to ensure we continuously question the manner in which they are run and that such endeavors be protected by law] to guarantee their strength. Such as is the case in other jurisdictions where they have been able to carry along the vision of their country, thus lifting millions of people out of poverty.
The Chinese Communist Party and the two party systems of Democrats vs Republicans in the US and the Labour vs Conservatives in the UK come to mind.
Kenya is essentially a de-facto two-party state, only that we kill them and start new ones from the same material every five years. Isn’t this a theatre of the absurd?
This recycling not only kills the careers of many a good leader, but also stunts the growth of our country towards sustained prosperity.
Public institutions such as constitutional commissions and independent offices needn’t not to cave in under political pressure to procure irregularities and illegalities. They should stand tall and defend their space since an institution is a rule that persists over time, despite who is in power.
They need to have men and women of honor and courage and not spineless apologists who are only too keen to suck up the whims of the powers that be or the appointing authority. They need to learn from the independent Judiciary and know that even them, their rights, too, are protected by the Constitution.
To anyone out there whose rights and fundamental freedoms have been infringed upon, keep fighting. Keep questioning, keep looking for answers to the problem at hand, for its only in doing so that human advancement and excellence is attained.
It doesn’t matter the fear, intimidation, denial of privilege, name-calling and mudslinging. Stand up, define yourself and do not allow seeing yourself through the lenses of others. Show to the world what you are made of for its not only authentic and original but also the essence of the mosaic of our diversity. And that, too, is what makes the world go around and to be an interesting place to live in.
To those who took the opportunity to body shame and call us out on the basis of anatomy, morphology and physiology merely to settle political scores, I want to remind them the words of Martin Luther King Jr: No man should be judged by the color of their skin, but on the content of their character.
We are much more than the presentation that comes with basic appearance and our quest is to put it out there that even if we don’t agree with you, we, too, have something to contribute towards making Kenya a great country, standing tall in the community and comity of nations.
Long live Kenya, Long live democracy through the rule of law, thanks be to the Almighty God.
