Ruto Must Steer His Ship or It Will Sink

I say this as one who has maintained from the very beginning, specifically from 1 hour after the Supreme Court affirmed President William Ruto’s election as our 5th president that we only have one president at a time and therefore Ruto must succeed as president for his success is our country’s success and vice-versa.

I and many others find it hard to believe things are as they are despite all the goodwill and opportunity accorded the president to charter the country’s course in a more progressive, more prosperous, and more united direction and not the other way around.

It’s time the president shakes up things, starting from reshuffling the cabinet and making sure he has people close to him who will take the country forward, not backward.

It’s not rocket science.

 

Hardliners Have Given the Opposition a Lifeline

 

Ignoring Court Orders Impunity That Must End

My Star oped this weekend:

Ignoring Court Orders is Impunity That Must End

The doctrine of separation of powers is fully entrenched in our constitution. Under this doctrine, the three branches of government are each to carry out their constitutional functions without interference from the other branches of government.

These three branches of government, namely, the Legislature, Judiciary and Executive branches are also supposed to operate independently.

We know that they don’t but that’s a subject for another day. For now, let’s concern ourselves with a reemerging, troubling phenomenon involving the branches of government. This is the flagrant, in-your-face disobeying or ignoring of court orders.

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This all changed after 2010 when — for the first time since independence — we witnessed the exercise of healthy judicial independence and cleaning of the rot that existed before then.

This peaked in 2017 when the Supreme Court overturned the presidential elections of that year, becoming the first apex court in Africa to do so—and, indeed anywhere in the world.

It has been downhill ever since with an outspoken senior lawyer recently lamenting in the media that he has never seen a more corrupt Judiciary in his 30 years as a lawyer. That’s quite an assertion that even if it was half true, it still speaks volumes as to where the Judiciary is today on matters of corruption.

The existence of corruption in the Judiciary is a separate issue from whether the office has constitutional functions that must be always respected by everyone, including all government officials. That includes the President who, to his credit, has affirmed the altruism time and again since being sworn in.

His predecessor had a junior who ignored court orders so flagrantly, leaving no doubt the big boss was either in approval or gleefully enjoying the drama.

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In the latest iteration of this ongoing test of judicial power, the court found the appointment of Cabinet Administrative Secretaries unconstitutional.

Question is, what will the President now do with this ruling and order?

The respondents who lost can appeal but given the soundness of the ruling, it is unlikely any appeal will succeed so the Ruto would have no choice but obey the order.