The fight against corruption, terror, impunity and other lawlessness being spearheaded by the Director of Criminal Instigation (DCI), The Director of Public Prosecutions(DPP) and the Ethics& Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) will not be won by those institutions alone. Those institutions need to be strengthened not just by being well funded, they also need to be given the necessary legislative leverage back up to facilitate their work. It is empty rhetoric for elected leaders in the National Assembly and Senate to strut around proclaiming that they support President Uhuru Kenyatta in the fight against corruption, terror, impunity and other lawlessness suffocating Kenya’s aspirations to a fair, just democratic nation that gives hope, opportunity to all its citizens.
What loopholes, technicalities, gaps, grey areas in the law are the lords of corruption, terror, impunity lawlessness using to perpetuate their criminal enterprises and how can those loopholes, technicalities, gaps grey areas in the law be sealed, cleared so that the criminals are expeditiously but within the framework of the Constitution, the law brought to account?
What legislative intervention can the National Assembly the Senate bring to bear on the Judiciary to deliver justice within acceptable time frames? How can we explain the pathetic state of affairs now prevailing where our courts seem to have an open, blank cheque, discretion as to how long it takes them to conclude a case before the Judiciary? Take the shame we are in now that those charged with having aided and abetted the terrorists who attacked the Westgate mall in 2013 are still strolling in court, going through the hearing of their case? So when will the Dusit 2 Hotel accomplices to the killed terrorists be heard and completed? Is it not time for the National Assembly, the Senate to legislate as to how long the prosecution and the Judiciary can be permitted handle, to hear and determine a criminal case once it’s placed in court. It is a human weakness that once people are given open ended options to do something they will have no urgency to conclude the task. Time is ripe for Kenya to thoroughly interrogate the legislative option that fixes how long roughly a criminal or civil case once opened, filed in our courts must be heard and determined by the court of 1st instance and also on appeal.
The Constitution of Kenya 2010 at article 159 clearly provides that justice shall not be delayed. And is delay not what our courts are serving Kenyans? Who will hold our Judiciary accountable on its Constitutional mandate to deliver justice expeditiously?Why not the National Assembly and the Senate?
It is hypocrisy being lazy, arm-chair spectators theorists to the problems that confront our Nation of Law and Order to just talk and expect miracles from the DCI, the DPP, EACC, the Judiciary without the elected leaders continuously designing, introducing and passing legislative measures that will strengthen the ability, capacity, where withal of those charged with enforcing the law.
The fight against corruption terror, impunity and lawlessness requires continuous innovations across the board but most important, through legislative interventions otherwise, the criminals the corrupt, the terrorists will always be a step ahead of the law enforcement and adjudication institutions. Elected leaders put your ideas, solutions on the fight against corruptions, terror, impunity, lawlessness on the table through legislative interventions.