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The Nairobian

How court misstep in Uhuru case dimmed the promise of Chapter Six

Opinion

By Ndong Evance | Mar 13, 2025

**Former President Uhuru Kenyatta addressing mourners at a burial in Ichaweri, Gatundu South.** [John Muchucha, Standard]

In the land where the rains pound the soil but never quench the thirst, political elite in this country have turned the pulpit into a podium. The sanctuary is now a stage, and the church a repository for questionable wealth.

It is here, in the hallowed halls of worship, that men and women, who should be under the sharp eye of the law, seek redemption through donation. Not repentance, just money.

This public display of generosity is not just a symptom; it is a disease of the poverty of integrity in our leadership. A disease that was nourished more when the High Court in 2012 in its fatal misstep, first failed to interpret correctly the integrity test under Chapter 6 of the Constitution. The recent ‘toa dada, toa ndugu spree’ is just but a facet of the integrity question.

Although integrity questions were with us as a society before 2010, the High Court in 2012 failed to interpret the integrity Chapter in a manner that raises the ethical threshold to the peak Kenyans intended in the Constitution.

In 2012, the High Court faced its moment of truth. The question was clear: Could two men facing charges at the International Criminal Court run for the highest office in the land? The answer was a legal maze, twisted with the vines of political expediency.

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The judges, bound by law but seemingly unshackled from principle, ruled that Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto could vie for the presidency despite the shadows of crimes against humanity hanging over their shoulders. It was the first sin. The original wound.The crack in the dam that allowed the flood of impunity to drown the promise of Chapter Six of the Constitution.

The Judiciary held the door open, and through it walked not just two men, but an entire generation of politicians with tainted pasts. They were armed with legal loopholes and a misplaced sense of entitlement.

The price? We now watch powerless, as wealth of dubious origins is paraded in places of worship. Yes, we just watch as corruption and leadership become interchangeable, and as integrity remains an orphan in the land of the righteous.

In 2024, High Court judge Francis Gikonyo, in the case involving Anthony Mwaura, the Kenya Revenue Authority board, delivered a judgment that should have been written in stone long ago. She ruled that a person need not be convicted to be disqualified under Chapter Six of the Constitution. Conviction, she argued, is not the only measure of integrity.

A leader must meet a higher test that goes beyond legal technicalities and speaks to the spirit of leadership. This was the judgment Kenya had been waiting for. It echoed the voices of the drafters of the Constitution, those who sat in the Constitution of Kenya Review Commission and the Committee of Experts, crafting laws that would keep the morally bankrupt from power.

They knew that Kenyans wanted a standard that rises above the mere presumption of innocence. After all, leadership is not a criminal trial but a sacred trust.

Even an acquitted leader can still fail the integrity test. The Constitution was meant to separate the wheat from the chaff, the shepherd from the wolf. But for too long, Kenya has been led by wolves dressed in the robes of humility, their teeth dripping with the blood of public coffers.

Justice Gikonyo has given Kenya a second chance to right the wrong. But will the nation listen? Or will it once again choose the path of least resistance, allowing the ghosts of 2012 to continue haunting its democracy? Only time will tell.

But as our leaders kneel in churches built on questionable wealth, let them remember that even the loudest prayers cannot silence the cries of a people betrayed by lack of integrity. Integrity, though on the chopping board, can be partly saved if the call from Gikonyo is implemented.

Our Constitution envisaged that the integrity test is stand alone and separate from a court process, that of a common citizen assessment. Put differently, the good judge was restating that it is not enough defence for one accused of corruption to simply argue there is an appeal or they were acquitted.