Mutula Kilonzo: The man to watch

The appointment of Mutula Kilonzo as the new Minister for Justice, National Cohesion and Constitutional Affairs is a move towards the right direction that will see reforms taking shape in a faster and a more democratic manner, allowing everyone to make the necessary contributions. The appointment will also strengthen the ties between PNU and ODM-K, saving Kalonzo Musyoka’s face after the embarrassing defeat in Parliament where he lost the leadership of Government business following the Marende ruling.

And the promotion of Njeru Githae as the new Minister for Metropolitan Development will go down very well in Gema circles where the departure of Martha Karua from the Cabinet was regarded as a big blow to the Mount Kenya community as a whole. The two appointments will cause no resentment from the ODM leadership as they don’t involve people who were appointed to the Cabinet by Raila Odinga.

From now on Mutula Kilonzo will be the centre of many Government plans to introduce the much talked about reforms including Constitutional changes that the country has been waiting for since Mwai Kibaki took over the leadership of Kenya. His is in a hot seat that became unbearable to the iron lady, Martha Karua, who had to quit claiming inability to introduce any reforms because of what she described as retrogressive forces around the President. Those forces will not cease to exist because Mutula Kilonzo has taken over the Ministry from Martha Karua. Neither will they stop scheming to make Mutula’s work just as uncomfortable as they made Martha’s.

This time however they will find out that they are dealing with an extremely tough politician who is as cunning as they are scheming. Martha Karua left the office without actually naming them or exposing their schemes in details. Mutula Kilonzo will not be that reticent. He is known for calling a spade a spade without any fear of stepping on sensitive toes. When the Bill to establish a local tribunal to deal with criminals who plotted the death of over a thousand people after the sham 2007 elections failed to go through Parliament, Mutula called for the resignation of both Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga. Until today he has neither withdrawn his call nor apologized to the two principals.

It so happens that the responsibility to reintroduce the Bill in Parliament lies on the shoulders of Mutula Kilonzo and the country is eagerly waiting to see how the new Minister will deal with the dicey situation. It also happens that very important parts of the Kriegler recommendations will depend on Mutula to implement . These include how to establish unity in the present fragmented country; and how to introduce reforms in the Judiciary and, last but not least, how to change the Constitution and give it the shape the people of Kenya as a whole desire to have. This is, in any language, a very tall order and Mutula is just the right man to handle the sensitive Ministry.

Of all the challenges facing Mutula in his new job, that of reforming the Judiciary tops the list. Reformining the Judiciary will be easier said than done because it happens to be the toughest undertaking in the entire Ministry. It is the one that saw the departure of Martha Karua. The Judiciary also happens to be the one arms of the Government that is most rotten with a saturated form of corruption that is protected by the law under the guise of independence of the Judiciary. The ability of the Judiciary to fight and protect its privileged position is well known to all Kenyans. To make matters worse the most powerful and most corrupt part of the Executive also protects the equally corrupt Judiciary. All these make Mutula Kilonzo’s job even more difficult.

Mutula will also have to implement a number of recommendations from the Waki Report. Of these the most important is the establishment of the special tribunal, to be set up as a court that will sit within the territorial boundaries of the Republic of Kenya and seek accountability against persons bearing the greatest responsibility for crimes, particularly crimes against humanity, relating to the 2007 General Elections in Kenya. This is the one recommendation that Kenyans do not agree about. Among the people causing confusion are those who suspect to be in Kafi Annan’s envelop and therefore likely to appear before the tribunal as suspected criminals.

Some of the suspected criminals are current sitting Members of Parliament. These are the people Mutula should be very careful with because they will gang up to frustrate his work and make sure they delay the whole process of establishing a tribunal in Kenya. Calls of taking the tribunal to The Hague have been made because no one expects the current Judiciary in Kenya to have the capacity or the willpower to seek justice independently.

Waki also recommended that the Special Tribunal should have powers to investigate, prosecute and adjudicate post 2007 election crimes. It suggests that the Tribunal should apply Kenyan and international laws with both Kenyan and international judges, as well as Kenyan and international staff. Again this is an issue about which Kenyans have not been able to agree on. Mutula’s views about the Tribunal are well known because he played a pivotal role in explaining to other legislators about the importance of having the tribunal established as soon as possible. Now that responsibility has been made even more special and urgent for Mutula.

The Waki report suggests that if either an agreement for the establishment of the Special Tribunal is not signed, or the Statute for the Special Tribunal fails to be enacted, or the
Special Tribunal fails to commence functioning as contemplated , or having commenced operating its purposes are subverted, a list containing names of and relevant information on those suspected to bear the greatest responsibility for crimes falling within the jurisdiction of the proposed Special Tribunal shall be forwarded to the Special Prosecutor of the
International Criminal Court. The Special Prosecutor shall be requested to analyze the seriousness of the information received with a view to proceeding with an investigation and prosecuting such suspected persons.

This means the list of criminals who almost succeeded in causing untold damages to this country is in the hands of international investigators. These are the people the AG and the new Minister for Justice should work with. All of a sudden the country depends a lot on Mutula Kilonzo who, hopefully, will not let Kenyans down.