Institutionalization of Impunity- Who is fooling who?

I was a one of the discussants at the concluded National Youth Forum which was held at the KICC on Tuesday, 17th November, 2009. To be specific, I was given time to respond to the topic on impunity. You and me are pretty aware that matters of impunity cannot be discussed in the five minutes I was allocated. In fact, to be honest I did not tell the gathering what I had set out to. After all what can a man say when there is a lady standing behind him gesturing vigorously that time is moving very fast?

I do not really know what comes to your mind anytime you hear this term impunity. But let me take you through what I know.

When I was still in the University for my undergraduate studies, one of the first year students who was campaigning to be Gender Affairs Secretary of SONU approached me and asked me what impunity meant. I quickly told her that it meant disrespect to the rule of law. That was all I knew. And I think this is the tragedy of our intellectualism. We lift book definitions and struggle to apply them haphazardly without caring to investigate the true meaning of what we read. I say so because a few days ago I came to discover that there is more to impunity than I had always thought.

Let us take this example. A few months ago, the Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission- TJRC was instituted to undertake what the Kenyan Government said was righting of generational wrongs committed against certain individuals, groups of individuals and certain communities. The Commission is headed by Mr. Bethwel Kiplagat. Most Kenyans are of course aware that there exists in this country a commission called Kenya National Commission on Human Rights-KNCHR and another one called the Kenya Anti- Corruption Commission- KACC, the National Gender Commission, the Public Service Commission-PSC which a friend of mine recently told me she had never known it ever existed! I almost laughed but I immediately remembered that it was not a laughing matter. It reminded me of the interview I once attended at that Commission-PSC and was treated to three questions which I will never forget in my life. But that is a story for another day.

The reason why I am talking of commissions in Kenya is not because I know them better than any other person but it is because these Commissions are the monumental demonstration of how far the afferent of impunity can go. Whereas in matters corruption for example, the KACC is a masterpiece example of how not to deal with corrupt human-beings, the failure to establish a local tribunal to try the 2007 Post Election Violence masterminds is the hallmark of shame and blatant declaration that impunity is ruling supreme and calling shots in Kenya. The existence of the KNCHR is a reminder to Kenyans and the world at large that it is impossible to protect and promote human rights in Kenya. Yet the KNCHR is founded on the vision of making Kenya a human rights State! The existence of the PSC is a stark reminder to Kenyans that distribution of the national cake in terms jobs will never be equal and that whether or not you like it certain people from certain regions will always get plumier jobs than others. The existence of the Kenya Revenue Authority-KRA is a bitter tale of the story of animal farm where much as the freedom creed of the kingdom animalia read like all animals are equal, some animals were, nevertheless, more equal than others! We like it or not, the tax regime in Kenya will always be skewed and tilted to the advantage of some sacred cows. This argument should of course tell you whose interest the TJRC serves.

My argument is founded on the feeling that the political leaders have become like the proverbial house mouse that bites the finger of a sleeping man and blows off the pain with its own breath! Take an example of the KNCHR. The greatest violator of human rights is the government, yet the same government has instituted a commission that apparently is to advice the same government on issues of human rights violations. It is sickening to know that the government in establishing such a commission is only involving itself in a Public Relations exercise to hoodwink the common citizenry that their human rights are protected. It hurts to know that the government in establishing the KACC is only interested in watching over petty bourgeois lest they should join and compete with the petro-dollar and comprador bourgeois by accumulation of capital beyond certain levels; of course by corrupt means. Otherwise, the Petro-Dollars and Compradors will never be netted. That is why it is easier for the KACC officers to arrest a D.O than arrest Kamlesh Patni! It is easier to arrest a Primary school teacher in Naivasha soliciting for a bribe than arrest Faulician Kabuga collecting rent from his Kilimani mansions. It is the reason why after both of them were convicted of man-slaughter, one Corporal Maoche was sentenced to ten years in prison while T.G Cholmondely was sentenced to eight months in prison! Of course you know the eight months were never fully served.

The other example which I cannot fail to mention is that of political parties as institutions. You know I have always wondered how it is that a member of parliament elected on one political party declares support for a rival political party and continues to remain in parliament! It is even funnier that a politician will lose an election on say ODM today in the morning and in the afternoon they join PNU and tomorrow they participate in the latter's elections! No one can by any stretch of struggle convince me that this is not impunity! It is impunity because after being sponsored by your political party to parliament, it remains your cardinal role to ensure that the values and principles for which your party stood are respected and accomplished. So, desertion of your political party is not only political conmanship but also thievery of resources and an abuse to the intellect of the very people who trusted you with power.

To end my long speech, let me submit here that impunity as a social malady is propagated by the very institutions that purport to check the vice. The politicians deliberately put in place such institutions to act not only as gimmicks against certain vices but also as cash cows for their cronies to draw huge sums of money in astronomical salaries! Everytime a Commission is established to guard against any vice, it is a demonstration by the State of worse things to come. That is why I have always argued alongside Mahatma Gandhi that true citizens have the responsibility of not only obeying the law of their land but also disobeying any law, rule or order not founded on the moral fabrics of society. My biggest question today is, 'why should certain institutions exist?' Whose interest do they serve? The answer is simple. They exist to protect impunity and those that are of service to this shameful social malady! I say so because all the institutions established by the government will never be given enough powers to live fully and truly to their mandate. If the the powers are given then funding will always be limited so that the functions are always crippled.

So, may be from now onwards, you should view impunity not just as the disrespect to the rule of law but more importantly, the institutionalization of the abuse of law by creating institutions that collate to defeat investigative efforts against the demise of certain vices which perpetuate the flexed muscles of social mal aire by seeking baptism of the body and sprouting of their spiritual connectivity to the the legalities of societal body politic!