FRIDAY, MAY 30, 2014

Kimaiyo and Githu moving from one bumbling incident to another

Inspector General of Police David Kimaiyo at CID training institute in Nairobi on May 28,2014. The IG had come under intense criticism from the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (Cord), which accused him of being used by the Jubilee Government to re-introduce dictatorship. PHOTO | EVANS HABIL(NAIROBI)

Inspector General of Police David Kimaiyo at CID training institute in Nairobi on May 28,2014. He is entitled to his views, of course, but his views are not the law, writes Maina Kiai PHOTO | EVANS HABIL(NAIROBI)  NATION MEDIA GROUP

In Summary

  • The perverted swoop-cum-extortion scheme of Somalis camouflaged as "security" measures that only leads to anger, intimidation and threats without increased security.
  • AG Muigai had the embarrassing audacity to recently argue at the ICC that "his views of the laws of Kenya must be preferred to those of an independent member of the Kenyan Bar… And failure to do so amounts to a violation of the sovereignty of Kenya."
  • Judge Eboe-Osuji was not impressed, stating that this is "a difficult argument to accept. It has no known substantive basis in law or practice."
By Maina Kiai
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Inspector-General of Police David Kimaiyo is seemingly on a quest for the Most Bumbling and Embarrassing Public Official award.

Fresh on the heels of his absurd and illegal attempt to ban tinted windows on cars, he then 'banned' political rallies and processions. While the official reason given was the amorphous 'security grounds,' Kimaiyo had earlier declared on TV that he saw no need for rallies as the elections were over.

Someone please give this man a copy — with tutorials — of the Constitution, and on the plain meaning of the Bill of Rights, including its superiority over all laws including the Public Order Act that he wrongly cites. And someone please advise him that his view of when, how and where campaigns should be conducted is irrelevant. He is entitled to his views, of course, but his views are not the law.

He has since climbed down from his blanket ban. But that appears to be more about the fact that President Kenyatta had already planned a series of roadside rallies in Eldoret, opening him up to charges of discrimination.

It has been a year of blunders and bumbling for IG Kimaiyo: The perverted swoop-cum-extortion scheme of Somalis camouflaged as "security" measures that only leads to anger, intimidation and threats without increased security. And then the release of "statistics" that suggest that crime has gone down by 14 per cent in the last two months — even as he then asks for a 166 per cent increase in the size of the police force!

Leave aside the inherent irony here, but does the IG really live in Kenya? For everyone living here has rarely ever felt so insecure. From mass graves; to assassinations on highways (which was "solved" and attributed to infighting without investigations); to thugs freely roaming the suburbs and high density areas; to terror attacks; we are living more in fear than ever before.

EMBARASSING AUDACITY

But he is not alone in this quest for the Bumbling Award. Attorney General Githu Muigai is offering stiff competition.

Perhaps emboldened by the ease with which he bamboozled some previously well regarded legal and moral minds at the Supreme Court during the presidential petition last year, AG Muigai had the embarrassing audacity to recently argue at the ICC that "his views of the laws of Kenya must be preferred to those of an independent member of the Kenyan Bar… And failure to do so amounts to a violation of the sovereignty of Kenya."

Judge Eboe-Osuji was not impressed, stating that this is "a difficult argument to accept. It has no known substantive basis in law or practice."

He further states: "…it is never known to be the case that a judge conducting litigation is expected, let alone required, to prefer the legal submissions of an attorney-general over those of any other member of the same Bar, merely because an attorney-general has 'espoused' the law. An attorney-general may have conflict of interest in the case."

AG Muigai asserted that his views of Kenyan law must take precedence even over those of a High Court judge. Barely hiding his disbelief, Judge Eboe-Osuji posed: "Could it really be correct to suggest that a principle of law exposed by a superior court judge in a different case could never be taken into account in a case at hand?"

Moreover on the assertion of Kenya's sovereignty, Judge Eboe-Osuji wrote: "But, all care must be taken to avoid reducing, in effect, the august notion of sovereignty of states to a hackneyed bogeyman that is conjured up at every convenient opportunity, with the evident aim of frightening judges of an international criminal court, as one would frighten small children."

Githu Muigai has one of the sharpest legal minds in the country — when put to work honestly. So what explains this foray into bumbling and embarrassment?

Ultimately, neither Kenyans nor President Kenyatta are being served well by these two bumbling public officials.

mkiai2000@yahoo.com