although the voter turnout was below the norm .
When the elections were announced , the losing side immediately objected but as per the constitution took their complaint to the Supreme Court for determination . There was no violence just disappointment and the voter again waited for the court to determine the petitions .
On the fifth of September the Supreme Court rendered its finding on the petitions filed and unanimously upheld the electoral body ’ s decision but that also happens to be the day that many Kenyans also felt really disillusioned to be Kenyan .
The language of the judgment was so uncivil and crude that one can only surmise it was authored by a rabid supporter of the winning side . Why were the insults and demeaning language necessary to communicate a position of the highest court of the land which in any case is final ?
The Kenyan voter , the security apparatus and even at the electoral body where the majority of the commissioners disowned the results by walking out , all behaved with restraint and civility . Was it beyond the Supreme Court to reciprocate the citizenry ’ s restraint and civility ?
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The reason why the Supreme Court has seven judges is that it is rare that unanimity is ever achieved and usually a vote determines the outcome with the odd number ensuring there cannot be a tie . It is definitely amazing when seven individuals operating ‘ independently ’ unanimously agree on all issues .
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It is the judiciary ’ s independence that has enabled us to trust the institution and any right-thinking Kenyan should be worried and concerned that the criminals now hiding in parliament and the executive will evade justice because of a ‘ grateful ’ judiciary .
The next shock came when the Chief Justice informed us that she invoked divine intervention to make the decision she read out . Kenyans would fervently hope that the decision was arrived at after meticulous scrutiny of the facts on hand rather than through prayer sessions .
The reason why democratic governments are secular is precisely to avoid such a conundrum where it is possible to alienate and disenfranchise a group of people on the basis that they do not subscribe to the god that one worships .
Would it be a fair rebuttal for the losing side to claim that they also prayed to their god and he confirmed to them the validity of the challenge and they could even go further to say that their challenge was divinely inspired to strengthen and safeguard the electoral process ?
Democracy gives every citizen the right to worship or not to worship any deity of their choosing so long as one group does not impose their version of truth on another . If it was ‘ their ’ god that delivered their victory then the other Kenyans did not need to go to the polls in the first place .
The reason why the Supreme Court has seven judges is that it is rare that unanimity is ever achieved and usually a vote determines the outcome with the odd number ensuring there cannot be a tie . It is definitely amazing when seven individuals operating ‘ independently ’ unanimously agree on all issues .
A judgment that did not even rebuke the electoral body in its summary is truly incredible . If the very many petitions that were subsumed into nine questions were so frivolous and harebrained , then why were they not thrown out from the word go rather than waste the time of seven eminent jurists ?
The next shock came on the inauguration day . Kenyans were rightfully proud to host so many heads of state and equally embarrassed that the deputy president did not bother rehearse his oath of office and did not realize that he was not on a campaign trail but was addressing international guests .
In his first national address the incoming president in the presence of the outgoing one did not heed to decorum and desist from resolving a thorny domestic matter of the six judges the outgoing president had refused to appoint on corruption allegations .
It certainly cannot have been the intention of the constitution to make a head of state just a rubber stamp to the recommendations of the judicial service commission . The word is recommendation not instruction , when the government fails the buck stops at his desk .
In the full glare of the international guests present he promised to appoint them before dinner on the same day , a promise he kept . During their swearing in even the former chief justice was present . Why does all this seem like a judiciary capture ?
It is a well-publicized fact that the incoming government has an inordinate number of legislators that have pending court cases and is it just a coincidence that the executive is in a hurry to get in bed cozily with the judiciary ? This is a most worrying development .
It is the judiciary ’ s independence that has enabled us to trust the institution and any right-thinking Kenyan should be worried and concerned that the criminals now hiding in parliament and the executive will evade justice because of a ‘ grateful ’ judiciary .
The crooked legislators are not going to pass laws that put them in jeopardy . If the judiciary is then partisan with compromised judges , then the whole democratic concept of checks and balances flies out of the window and the tainted aggressive executive will have a field day .
We had stated in an earlier commentary that whoever wins this election the loser will be democracy and already the building blocks for autocratic rule are being laid . Kenyans should be very wary of these early developments especially when they have a judiciary they cannot trust .