WHY MARTHA CAN BUT WILL NOT MAKE IT TO PRESIDENCY IN 2012

Hon.Martha Karua. MP-Gichugu.

If society expectation is anything to go by, then Martha Karua shares one thing in common with Nancy Baraza and Willy Mutunga. Apart from the fact that the three have adequate academic backgrounds in their areas of specialization, they have incomplete nuclear family backgrounds.  It is common knowledge that a complete nuclear family consists of a father, mother and children. For Nancy and Willy, it is on record that they are divorced, however, for Martha it is not clear whether she was once married or not.

The intensive and incisive vetting by the Judicial Service Commission of the top two judicial candidates has emancipated the public on how to vet the capabilities of their MPs and even Presidents to be. The further vetting by the parliamentary committee on the candidates went a stretch ahead to indicate that the parameters that determine the suitability of a candidate rests not only in the echelons of his/her academic  history, past achievements and integrity but also their moral standing in the society. This will be determined by his/her principles, how well one manages his/ her family among other personal issues. It is crystal clear that anyone who aspires to be a holder of the highest office in the land, must be ready to have his/her personal life scrutinized by the public. Whether Martha is comfortable being asked questions about her personal life and some of her past encounters that compromised on her moral standing is left for time to tell.

Test run

Martha’s luck in the presidency will be determined by how well the top judicial candidates will positively transform an otherwise lame and hypocritical yet crucial arm of the government (Judiciary). However the assessment of their success will take time thereby putting Martha’s candidacy fruitful, if earliest in 2017. The public is well aware that no one can be perfect and therefore chose to overlook the morality queries leveled against the top judicial nominees an instead focused on their proven track records and past experiences in their respective fields. Should they fail this test, then even the trivial of issues including their hitherto questioned moral standings will be blamed for their squandered opportunity and the public would in the then future take precaution on such nominees either in Presidency or other top government positions.

Botched elections

At one point, she was seen as the ‘man’ in PNU during the election tallying process at KICC. She stood-up for the incumbent President during the process and even during the peace accord negotiations. Even though the electoral process was heavily faulted by most local and foreign organizations she did not budge out of her stand. It was interesting to see her quit cabinet citing sabotage and no-inclusivity  in critical decision making processes that touched on her docket for instance the appointment of the High Court Judges. This was a subtle admission of betrayal from the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. The scenario is rich in irony as the man Martha was fighting-Raila is working with the President. It can be loosely seen that Martha does not have the political knack to fight a political system that is full of treachery, backstabbing and sabotage. She does not know when to quit and when to hold on. She ought to have learnt something from the Prime Minister that if you want to rock a boat, then do it from within just the way the latter drenched KANU and its stalwarts and more so how suspended Higher Education Minister is doing it to bring ODM to its  knees. Kenya is a frontier for economic and political progress in the region and one who wants to maintain and even improve the status must be very calculating, tolerant and decisive as opposed to temperamental and reactive.

Africanisation of civillisation

Apart from the chauvinists who exist in a near extinct form, Africa in general has not fully embraced the idea of a lady President. The cases are very minimal like Sierra Leone which had limited options. I would like to know why Nancy Baraza did not apply for the position of the Chief Justice and went for the deputy. Interesting to note that there is only one lady judge in the Supreme Court, there is no lady Deputy Prime Minister or Vice President and there is no aspiring lady governor. It is not further from the truth that Kenya just like most African states is not ready to embrace the idea of lady African president. However, the constitution has provisions on the gender parity in as far as distribution of the public positions is concerned, though the implementation of the constitution is gradual so once more this will take time.

Battle with the media

Martha is on record to have been in and out of court seeking compensation for damages that arose from defamation allegation that were perpetrated by some media company in Kenya .  Defamation arose from a kidnapping incident in which Father Wamugunda was a co-victim. Whether the media sensationalized the incident or not it is still left for the two who can author the events that unfolded, before, during and after the incident. But what remained is that her character and self was depicted in a questionable way to the public. Developed countries and civilized institutions are well aware of the power of the media-the power to shape perception of its people, set agendas and mainstream the people. I know of no one who has ever fought the media and survived-ask Mutahi Kagwe.

Anyone with Martha’s intellect knows well the political matrix involved in trying to clinch presidency in 2012, however, it is also imperative for one to create a political foundation to set base that would propel him/her to presidency in future. Kenya suffers a great deal of tribalism, nepotism, propaganda, barbaric political machinations among many other issues. It is also relieving for the likes of Martha that the public is immensely becoming very critical of the political process with a knowledge base. The political paradigm is shifting each day with more and more people becoming more interested in a candidate’s intellect, profile, reputation and achievements as opposed to tribe and monetary stamina. By 2017 and towards 2022 this group of people will be a force to reckon with but as at now, we still have to grapple with what we have.