Mutula Kilonzo on Justice

Excerpts from a recent interview with Mutula Kilonzo, Minister for Justice, were made available in the Daily Nation. I must admit I have admired the way the minister has handled some of the controversial issues that have come in his way since he took over the docket. Thus far he stands out as a (potential) reformer. 

What does he think of predecessors Mr Tom Mboya, Mr Charles Njonjo, Mr Murungi and Ms Martha Karua? “All my predecessors were confronted with issues of a national nature. But they lost it where they took political party lines, or where they took the position of defending either the President or their political parties. The law was not drawn for individuals,” he says. Mr Mboya, the minister explains, “rearranged the Constitution” to “punish the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga”. That was the 1969 amendments to the Constitution.  “You remember Mr Njonjo saying that to even imagine the death of a president was treason. Was that defence of the country or defence of the President?” he asks rhetorically. Mr Kilonzo points out that the 1976 Constitutional amendment to allow Mr Paul Ngei to run was one of the low points of Mr Njonjo’s career. The minister then tears into Mr Murungi accusing him of misleading President Kibaki to disobey the 2002 pre-election pact that propelled him to power. “Of course, Martha says she’s a reformer; that’s not the way I remember her! When we recommended essential reforms (in 2007), did she accept?” He thinks her worst was in 2007 when there were vacancies in the Electoral Commission of Kenya. As ODM-K team leader, he demanded that the vacancies be filled in an inclusive manner but Ms Karua refused. “And what was the advice to the President? ‘You’re the President, and you have a right to appoint. Didn’t the President appoint those commissioners? He did. It brought us to our knees. By the time we were standing at KICC, together with Martha, me representing Kalonzo (Musyoka) and Martha representing President Kibaki, the chickens had come home to roost,” he says.