Transforming Kenya; mirroring the Judiciary.

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will-Romans 2:12

I am at the Judiciary Transformation Framework Workshop. I have been asked to indicate what I feel. Challenged, motivated, shocked and humbled to interact with people who have served this country for over 30 years in the judiciary. They say the former judiciary was intimidating, you could not express yourself, you could not state your issues, your needs, your aspirations. You just worked, like a robot might they add. They are amazed, pleased and thankful that they get to attend a workshop. A transformation workshop where they get to interact with the judges, with senior management. Better still, where the core rule is “no titles”. 30 years of titles, traded for three days of equality and no titles. Three sacred days of owning this great institution. To most of them, it’s priceless. To me, it’s humbling. Four months of serving this country in the judiciary, my mornings have purpose, my days direction, my interactions experience, my career satisfaction.

As I jot this, as people continue to introduce themselves, I wonder, should I be documenting this? Then almost instantly, I answer in the affirmative. Yes I need to let Kenyans know, the feelings the members of the judiciary have about the transformation process. A process introduced by the will of the Kenyan people through the Constitution of Kenya 2010. It seems the Constitution opened up a decade of “business unusual” in this great Republic. From the conduct of public officers, to respect for human rights, matrimonial property, elections and the electoral process, and many other spheres of our daily lives. The Judiciary probably has had the most illumination of the new Constitution, its aspirations, its values and principles and those of the Kenyan people. The Constitution has finally made the Judiciary a judiciary for Kenyans. The work of the judiciary is finally being owned by the persons, otherwise known by the Constitution as public officers. The enthusiasm and optimism guaranteeing the perfection of the Judiciary's core business, to administer justice for all Kenyans and to set, in the Honourable Chief Justice, Dr. Willy Mutunga's words, “patriotic and indigenous jurisprudence” 

The Judiciary Transformation Framework gives four key pillars to guide the process of Judicial Transformation.

  

Pillar 1-People focused delivery of Justice,

Pillar 2- Transformative leadership, Organisational culture and professional staff,

Pillar 3- Adequate finance resources and physical infrastructure and

Pillar 4- Harnessing technology as an enabler of justice.

Kenyans bear the pride of innovation. With mobile-banking possibly being the biggest money exchange media in Africa and quickly gaining international interests. Kenyans now pride themselves for having ratified a solid and concrete Constitution. As a result, they can now rest easy for Justice is in their courts. It has been said that “peace is not the absence of war, but the presence of Justice”. One of my greatest motivations in joining the judiciary was, one, to serve my Country, two, to work in the Judiciary and to draw from its professionalism but most importantly, to take pride in my future years in saying, “ I was part of it”, I was part of the transformation”.

Kenyans need only look to the judiciary to know what good leadership can bear. Results, impacts and delivery. There must be skeptics in every game of change. But there must be some shifts, pleasant and unpleasant. It is however the compromise that we must make. I have experience the shift. I have watched people dream and speak out their dreams for the Kenyan judiciary. I believe that Kenya is transformed in the eyes of the Judiciary. Its values reinforced. The constitution jealously guarded. Still we move.....we continue to become better.

The closing is phenomenal. A phenomenal lady speaks. She has worked in the Judiciary for 35 years. She has been through the regimes. She bears the transformation right from the depth of her heart. She challenges us. She says the judiciary is taking a phenomenal turn. I can feel her energy. In the hot Eastern sun, I realise the staff members are awake. Not just awake, AWAKE!..I shut my eyes, to internalise her wisdom. I scream from the depths of my bones, quietly, internally,...AWAKE KENYA...AWAKE!!..I think about a book I am reading, Greg Mill's “Why Africa is poor”, I nod, “Africa is poor because our leaders have made this choice”....It stings, but said it must, “Kenya refuses to transform because Kenyans have made this choice”. It all boils down to leadership.

I look forward to the cocktail. To end a wonderful collegial interaction and to chatter away as I gulp my glass of non-alcoholic wine. I know one thing, the employees in the Judiciary are different. They see things differently now. We dance to “Mkenya Daima” for the 3rd time. The sense of patriotism and public service sinks a little deeper. I know..this is an Institution I want to be associated with. This is my avenue to serve this great Republic.

Vote Kenya; vote in honour of our fallen men and women in uniform

Honour and statesmanship

Saturday 10th November 2012, young Kenyan policemen are pursuing cattle raiders in Baragoi, Samburu County. Most of them, fresh recruits from the Kiganjo Police Training College, a walking distance from my birthplace. Family and friends had gathered at the college in August this year for the colourful passing out ceremony. Most of these young soldiers, the hope of their families. Aged 20-26 years of age. In the prime of their youth. Most of them glad that they can finally make ends meet. All of them ready to serve this great nation. Upon the conclusion of the ceremony, they are put in police tracks and transported to their first areas of posting. Most of them en-route to North Eastern Province. Still, they smile as they bid their relatives goodbye. “We are out to serve this country”, they say. “We shall give our all”, they promise. What 40 or so of them do not realise is that their all, means their lives.

Two years ago, my mother called me, shaken and out of breath, “Jose had been shot” she said. Jose has been what?! How? Where? By who?..by “bandits in Pokot” she said. “They were way-laid and attacked. Most of them did not even fire back. But God is great, he has been airlifted to the Kenyatta National Hospital and is stable. Call Shiku and see how she is doing”.

Jose is like a brother to us. Shiku is like a sister to me. We love each other, grown up together and shared the joys of childhood. Between that phone call and the hospital was a nightmare. He was lucky, we were lucky, the gun shots, four on both thighs did not hit any bones. The surgery was successful and within two months, Jose was back to work, serving this country.

I called him last night, to see whether he had been sent as reinforcement to Baragoi. He wasn't sure whether they would send him out. “I am worried”, I say to him. I pray they will not send him out there. I do not want to live with the nightmare of what could befall him. But in his characteristic soldier self, he says, “but they need reinforcement, if they send me out, I shall go”. I pause and think, our soldiers are really passionate about this country, but are we passionate about them? Do we care to think what their needs could be or what difficulties they encounter in their line of duty. People I love are in the forces. I am in the forces as my heart and family are in it. Therefore, I worry when we lose 40 soldiers to armed militia. Militia more equipped than our own security forces. I want to scream when the police commissioner admits to a tactical mistake. I shall tell you what a tactical mistake does, it renders wives husband-less, parents childless, siblings brother-less. It paralyses this nation in terms of security.

Shall we sit and watch as our leaders commit these policy murders. When the highest percentage of our budget goes to defence and security, yet our soldiers are ill equipped to respond to a line of fire when ambushed trying to reinforce law and order? We send inexperienced policemen to deal with dangerous criminals and do not rethink this policy decision when more than once, a quarter of fresh recruits die within their first years of service in hardship areas.

Do we think ourselves helpless in the face of such policy blunders? Indeed we are not. We are armed with information and experience and we can vote in honour of our fallen heroes. We can vote to restore security. We can vote to save lives. We can vote for people with clear and practical policies about the things that this country truly needs; security and peace, rule of law, food, health-care and creation of employment.

Vote Kenya; vote in honour of our fallen heroes in Somalia, in Tana River, in Baragoi and anywhere else in this great Republic. Watch-out for people who have amorphous promises that will yield nothing but five wasted years, wasted lives and a wasted republic. When we vote without policy consideration, we commit our children to starvation, we send our soldiers to pits and valleys of death, we send our doctors to private practice at the expense of public healthcare, we dissipate peace and all forms of cohesion, we sacrifice talent and growth at the alter of unemployment. If for nothing else, vote in honour of our men and women in uniform. Those that are out in the wild defending our borders and keeping us safe. Keep them safe on March 4th 2013. It will be an act of honour and statesmanship.