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Stop
ignoring court orders
DAILY NATION
Publication Date: 10/25/2005
Recent Government pronouncements
have put the rule of law in serious jeopardy, because they
deliberately ignore or belittle valid court orders.
The edict by Lands minister Amos
Kimunya urging squatters on a disputed piece of land to stay on -
totally disregarding a court order evicting them - is the latest
addition to the growing list of blatant violations of the law.
The Narc administration has
displayed scant regard for the rule of law on both private and
public property.
While the Government has been quick
to explain its actions, there can be no justification whatsoever
for failing to ensure the sanctity of private property.
Populist slogans have been offered
whenever the Government is questioned over its actions. But they
do not convey a rational programme to redress social wrongs.
This largely political disease,
which, apparently, forces leaders to speak on impulse, flourished
in the Kenyatta and Moi eras.
The Narc administration has taken
it to new heights by allotting public land to individuals - as has
happened in Mau Narok - and inciting squatters in Nyandarua to
stay on in a private farm, an issue being contested in court.
Now, if the Government has the
temerity to disregard the law, how are ordinary mortals expected
to act?
There has been a temptation to
reduce everything to the ongoing contest over the referendum on a
new constitution.
Many things have been said and done
with no other intention but to appeal to the masses. Such
inducements have been condemned by the Electoral Commission of
Kenya. But the ECK, too, has been studiously ignored.
What the Government should
recognise, as President Kibaki has rightly observed, is that there
will be a nation to govern after November 21.
But that can happen only if systems
are followed and peace prevails. Actions by his ministers -
and even by him (in the case of the title deeds he issued to the
Ogiek) - undermine the very principle on which this nation is
founded: Respect for the law.
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