Why did President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga pick Mutula KIlonzo as the new Minister for Justice, National Cohesion and Constitutional Affairs?
A. He deserves to have the docket purely on merit.
B. He ticks all the boxes in the government's reform agenda check-list.
C. Lack of a better option.
D. They flipped a coin.
Predicting whether newly appointed ministers will be successful in managing their dockets is one of the trickier bits of arm-chair political punditry. But Mutula Kilonzo,the new Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs is a so clearly a dud that he makes the whole issue a no-brainer. Always a stickler for rhetorical raffles and flourishes, the Senior Counsel welomed his new cabinet posting by declaring;
“I will strive to do my best in ensuring institutional reforms Kenyans have yearned for decades are achieved within a reasonable time frame”.
I wouldn’t hold my breathe.
Like the proverbial elephant and the six blind men, Mutula Kilonzo portrays different sides to different people. There is Mutula Kilonzo the Senior Counsel, teetotaler and go-getter who rose from humble beginnings as the son of a watchman from Mbooni to become the lawyer of the most powerful man in the land. Then there is the endlessly pilloried Mutula Kilonzo; a political opportunist and flip-flopper who trims to every wind that can further his political ends.
How are Kenyans expected to believe that this man who cut his teeth as a lawyer in the Moi-era when justice was sold to the highest bidder will help mid-wife the much needed Judicial reforms.His appointment betrays just how skewed the GCG's reform agenda is.If the GCG was at all serious about its reform agenda then they wouldn't be scrapping the bottom of the barrel to fill such important dockets.
It must be remembered that Mutula made his money doing Moi’s legal bidding, the unsavory nature of which did not leave him and his much-maligned cliet covered in glory.His firm is reputed to have made a killing defending the former president when corruption allegations were coming thick and fast.True,as an old hand in the corridors of jusice Mutula is well placed to identify and remedy the many demons that plague our judiciary.But that would only be possible if Mutula wasn't a product of this judiciary and his wealth wasn't accumulated from exploiting it.He can't be expected to bite the hand that feeds him. He simlpy doesn't have the sincerity of purpose nor the dogged persistance required to clean up the judiciary.
The only thing you can expect from Mutula Kilonzo is the usual sound bites and fancy lip-wriggling on judicial reforms that is designed to create the effect of movement without motion. One only hopes that Kenyans will realize the truth in Henry David lament that, “there are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil but non who is striking at the roots” before Mutula Kilonzo and crew sell this country down the river.
