YVONNE’S TAKE: A celebration of honor

A few weeks ago, a little curious thing happened. Something that may have gone unnoticed, unreported. Something that warmed my heart and restored my hope in integrity in Kenya. It all came to light through a letter. A letter written by Allen Waiyaki Gichuhi.

For those who don’t know him, he is an advocate of the High Court of Kenya and a former President of the Law Society of Kenya (LSK). Now it turns out that the industrial property tribunal of Kenya had been seeking to fill the position of chairperson. And somehow, picked on Allen Gichuhi to chair this tribunal. They then went on to gazette his appointment in Kenya Gazette number 10714. He was to serve as Chair of this tribunal for 3 years from the October 6, 2021.

Now this would be good news to anyone, a feather in one’s cap, something that would no doubt look good on one’s resume. There is only one problem though: Allen neither knew about the appointment, nor did he apply for the position or even interview for it. In fact, according to him, he only knew about it when he started to get queries from friends and colleagues and then went to the Kenya Gazette where he found his name listed in the many appointments that had been made at that time.

So, Allen went ahead and wrote to the Cabinet Secretary in charge of Industrialisation, Trade and Enterprise Development and copied the Registrar of the Judiciary. I would like to quote parts of that letter now:

“I am honoured to have been considered for this appointment, but regrettably decline the appointment for the following reasons:

1.       I was not consulted about my availability and willingness to take this appointment

2.       I was not aware of any open, fair and competitive recruitment process leading to my appointment

3.       I am the senior partner in a busy law firm and having consulted my partners, I regret that such an appointment would cause a conflict of interest in matters that my firm handles for various clients that may give rise to a dispute before the industrial property tribunal. In addition, my heavy workload in the firm, arbitral practice, my current pursuit of further studies and various other personal commitments will not allow me to take up the role of chairperson.

4.       The current chairman is still in office until his term expires in July 2022.

He received no formal response to this letter, but they did degazette his appointment last week.

How often do we see this in Kenya? I mean, he could easily have accepted this appointment, kept quiet about it, pocketed the sitting allowances for 3 years, used the position to his advantage and that of his law firm and clients.

And considering everything we have seen in this country regarding corruption, abuse of office, integrity or lack thereof. In a land where we often see corruption stories hitting the headlines, from traffic police officers with millions of shillings whose source cannot be explained and being finally forced to return them, to mega scandals worth billions of shillings, to cabinet secretaries being jailed in historic verdicts. 

We could ask many questions about how this appointment was arrived at e.g how is it that Allen was never consulted before his appointment? What of the issues he raises about a competitive process? And what of that claim that the term of the current chair expires next year?

These are disturbing questions because they all speak to one thing – transparency or lack of it. And might this give a glimpse of how many of the appointments are made? Is this how Allen’s replacement will be appointed? These questions are one more reason why Allen’s rejection of the appointment ought to be lauded. That in the face of what is clearly a very opaque process, he stood up to be counted.

There are obviously many Allens out there who reject such offers in their small ways and perhaps no one gets to know about it. This and similar acts, however few and far between, prove that the right thing can still be done in this country. 

My question to you today is, what would you have done if you were in Allen’s position?