The State Law Office is holding on to Sh1.2 trillion legal payments for torture victims, constitutional violations, contractual obligation breaches and unlawful blanket dismissals from the public service.
Auditor General Nancy Gathungu accuses the Attorney General of laxity. She observes that the value of legal suits is equivalent to 71 per cent of annual taxes and debt due to the World Bank.
Yet to be reinstated and compensated for wrongful termination of services in the State Law Office is Under Secretary, Michael Odongo Jobita, whose loyalty and diligence cost him the job.
The court has since absolved him of blame and ordered his reinstatement with full benefits.
These payments could have been settled if the aggrieved had a fallback position or if there was an office to address the grievances of litigants.
The Bomas constitution draft created the Office of the Public Defender but it was scrapped in the Wako draft. Public property cannot be attached in the event of default in the settlement of legal dues.
Gathungu’s revelations and similar disturbing disclosures don't prick the conscience of the lawmakers and their ilk. It is business as usual as campaigns for renewal of mandates continue without reference to the masses' grievances.
Parliamentary watchdog committees and the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights are better placed to take up matters violation contained in the Gathungu report.
Under the watchful eyes of vocal politicians, the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission report is another important document abandoned on the dusty shelves of the Legislature and Executive where it remains a reference material for law and history scholars.
What else can Kenyans reading the Gathungu report conclude? Justice can be elusive, more so if the dispenser of the same assumes above the law status.
Justice and the rule of law are mere election slogans and music to the ears of the silent majority. Present-day leaders and their predecessors are enemies of the public who watch helplessly as their representatives condone and abet wrongdoing in high places.
Who defends the helpless Kenyan masses if not the Attorney General? The designated Public Defender could have been a solution but we are stuck with many watchdogs asleep on the job.
The writer is a freelance Journalist. Email: [email protected]
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