Abdikadir is losing his shine

Recent events in Kenya are interesting and saddening. Interesting because of the transparency we are seeing in the recruitment of public officials, and saddening because of the disappointments that some the events elicit. The most interesting was the process of nomination of the Chief Justice, the deputy Chief Justice and the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) and the ensuing debate in parliament.One man who disappointed was the Chairman of the Constitutional Oversight and Implementation Committee, Mohammed Abdikar. During the debate on the nomination of the three individuals for various offices under the new constitution, the chairman read the report to parliament on behalf of his committee. He went to great lengths to explain the rationale behind the selection of all the three nominees, Willy Mutunga as the Chief Justice, Nancy Baraza as deputy Chief Justice and Keriako Tobiko as the DPP. The report had recommended that Tobiko be allowed to assume office as the DPP but that further investigations be done regarding various accusations that had been labeled against him. Parliament went ahead to amend the report before it was adopted, with the recommendation by the committee that Tobiko be investigated being expunged from the report. I was disappointed by the chairman because he was part of the team that made the recommendations but he made no effort at all to defend the position that the committee had taken when some members of parliament asked for the amendment of the report. My question would be, did he really believe in the report that his committee made? As leader of the team, I think that he should have defended that position if it was made in good faith and for the good of the country. The chairman made no effort at all to defend the committee’s position, which makes it very suspicious. To me, it seems that he has fallen prey to party politics and that is why he was not willing to stand up for the recommendations that his committee made. If he really was serious that Tobiko should be investigated further, why did he keep quiet when some of the members of the committee were opposing the expunging of the recommendation from the report? I read mischief in his rendering of the final report where he mentions the names of four members of committee and the positions they took on various issues (John Mbadi, Ababu Namwamba, Chirau Mwakwere and Wilfred Ombui). Was it necessary to pick out four members of the committee and publish their opinions on issues that the committee deliberated on, without telling the public what the positions of the other members of the committee were on the same issues? If you look keenly at the positions taken by these four gentlemen, you realize that they follow party positions (Party of National Union and Orange Democratic Movement), and I think that is what Abdikadir wanted to bring out, basically that one side of the coalition was supporting Tobiko’s appointment (PNU), while the other side of the coalition (ODM), was not. Remember that Abdikadir is in the committee on behalf of PNU. Indeed, the nomination of Tobiko took a political spin when eventually the two coalition parties started blaming each other for opposing the nomination of Tobiko. A member of parliament from Maasai land, William Ntimama, even went ahead and threatened ODM that the Maasai will not support the party in 2012 elections if Tobiko was not confirmed as the DPP. Keriako Tobiko may be happy that he will become the DPP but the fact of the matter is that his nomination was more political and less meritorious. But above all, I tend to think that Abdikadir has received so many commendations previously that he is now taking Kenyans for granted, that whatever he does will be accepted without questioning because of his past success during the constitution making process. He is losing his previous shine and pandering to party politics.