Mutunga - Legacy??

[gout]

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Can any one person do anything in a nation with so much indiscipline, shaky productive culture which makes corruption the signature ...

You reform judiciary, police and prosecutors raise their bribe margins, a few years latter the judges also want in and on and on. You are sucked in somewhat start enjoying the office trappings or become disillusioned as all Africa big men.

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/mutunga-legacy-what-he-needs-do-now

http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/The-mystery-of-absentee-chief-justice-in-Judiciary-mess/-/440808/2907928/-/ssfsn7/-/index.html

[MOON Ki]

Can any one person do anything in a nation with so much indiscipline, shaky productive culture which makes corruption the signature ...

In today's Kenya, integrity and hard work are generally seen as signs of extreme stupidity (in anyone below 60) or signs of the onset of senility (in anyone above 60).    That makes it a tough place for anyone who thinks in terms of positive change.

There also seems to be the notion that the judiciary has been reformed through things like the "vetting" exercise.  Not quite so.   All that vetting has done is get rid of the worst of a bad lot.   It's like taking with a class of mostly D- and some F students and getting rid of the F students.   The average grade certainly goes up, but it's still mostly D- students.   There's a limit to what Mutunga can do with the cards he's been dealt.

[RV Pundit]

You can fight corruption using technology. This is why I was excited about Shollei (before she turned out very corrupt) and Dr Mutunga should have utilize ICT tech to help reduce workload, case load and of course corruption. He has failed in that. The courts are still very analogue...that gives lots of loophole for all sort of corruption..leave alone the honest inefficiencies.

The next CJ should deploy technology....anything else has been tried and it has failed.

There should be full audio-visual recording at any courts, court proceedings transcribed, fines and bonds paid via mpesa or electronically, more arrangement for instant fines for petty crimes such as traffic offense.

[Omollo]

Yes to technology but there are some very simple changes that require no technology. How about buying a pot from Gikomba, putting in all the names of the available judges and while blindfolded (like Lady Justitia) draw the sets of judges to hear cases. That way there is no lobbying to be assigned a given case or "gerrymandering" to place oneself ahead to hear "lucrative" cases.

Mutunga has decided to keep the Dictatorial powers of Gicheru to decide who should hear what case. Bench composition is a mighty headache in the delivery of justice. In some jurisdictions, the method used in Kenya has been outlawed for its unfairness.

It is the reason Njuguna formerly of CBK poured a billion at Milimani to prevent Justice Ngugi from hearing his case. That is also the day I dumped Mutunga. He failed to take action against the persons who removed Njuguna's file from Ngugi and took it to Majanja. I also lost confidence in Majanja and suspect him of being on the take. He has become the latest Gate Keeper.

On Lifestyle audit, the palaces owned by judges could never be built from a normal salary. There was Ringera firing other judges while he competed with Wako on who owns the largest house in Kenya! Wako himself bought the largest house incomplete from Maxwell Ombogo and when on to complete it after increasing the area. He now sits in the Senate talking about corruption. He belongs in Kamiti.

You can fight corruption using technology. This is why I was excited about Shollei (before she turned out very corrupt) and Dr Mutunga should have utilize ICT tech to help reduce workload, case load and of course corruption. He has failed in that. The courts are still very analogue...that gives lots of loophole for all sort of corruption..leave alone the honest inefficiencies.

The next CJ should deploy technology....anything else has been tried and it has failed.

There should be full audio-visual recording at any courts, court proceedings transcribed, fines and bonds paid via mpesa or electronically, more arrangement for instant fines for petty crimes such as traffic offense.

[RV Pundit]

Omollo, I wouldn't worry myself so much with a few high profile cases here and there; I would focus on the bulk of the cases; traffic offenders, changaa sellers, land disputes, succession issues, child support cases, petty crimes of stealing, serious crime of rape, murder and robbery;cases that don't make news but form the majority of cases filled and figure out how to make systemic changes that would move the judiciary even a notch on the bulk of these cases. I would me more interested in the "mean"...of all the cases..how long does it take to complete any single case. My last visit to the judiciary; a magistrate court left me totally deflated; everything is analogue and done haphazardly; magistrate just looks at the calendar; and guess mention or hearing dates after few seconds of perusal of the file. I found some folks waiting for hearing in really petty cases for 1yr plus; and in fact most of folks just plead guilty to avoid having to deal with judiciary.

That to me is where I see Mutunga failure. I would bet in every country; high profile cases will always be controversial but what does the average omollo or wanjiku or kiptoo go through in the corridors of justices.

Yes to technology but there are some very simple changes that require no technology. How about buying a pot from Gikomba, putting in all the names of the available judges and while blindfolded (like Lady Justitia) draw the sets of judges to hear cases. That way there is no lobbying to be assigned a given case or "gerrymandering" to place oneself ahead to hear "lucrative" cases.

Mutunga has decided to keep the Dictatorial powers of Gicheru to decide who should hear what case. Bench composition is a mighty headache in the delivery of justice. In some jurisdictions, the method used in Kenya has been outlawed for its unfairness.

It is the reason Njuguna formerly of CBK poured a billion at Milimani to prevent Justice Ngugi from hearing his case. That is also the day I dumped Mutunga. He failed to take action against the persons who removed Njuguna's file from Ngugi and took it to Majanja. I also lost confidence in Majanja and suspect him of being on the take. He has become the latest Gate Keeper.

On Lifestyle audit, the palaces owned by judges could never be built from a normal salary. There was Ringera firing other judges while he competed with Wako on who owns the largest house in Kenya! Wako himself bought the largest house incomplete from Maxwell Ombogo and when on to complete it after increasing the area. He now sits in the Senate talking about corruption. He belongs in Kamiti.

You can fight corruption using technology. This is why I was excited about Shollei (before she turned out very corrupt) and Dr Mutunga should have utilize ICT tech to help reduce workload, case load and of course corruption. He has failed in that. The courts are still very analogue...that gives lots of loophole for all sort of corruption..leave alone the honest inefficiencies.

The next CJ should deploy technology....anything else has been tried and it has failed.

There should be full audio-visual recording at any courts, court proceedings transcribed, fines and bonds paid via mpesa or electronically, more arrangement for instant fines for petty crimes such as traffic offense.

[MOON Ki]

You can fight corruption using technology.
...
There should be full audio-visual recording at any courts, court proceedings transcribed, fines and bonds paid via mpesa or electronically, more arrangement for instant fines for petty crimes such as traffic offense.

Technology can never be better than the people who use it, and the NYS thing has just confirmed that again. 

Audio-visual equipment can be made to fail at the "right" times, instant fines simply move a problem to a different level, court dates in an electronic calendar can be changed, etc.

To put it quite simply, no amount of technology is going to be of much help where a person with a case can meet a judge (or judge's representative)  and hand over a fat envelope of cash to have the  case taken care of.

anything else has been tried and it has failed.

Far from it.   On the contrary, nobody has ever been serious about really dealing with corruption in Kenya.   

[RV Pundit]

Every system can be gamed but technology makes it harder to game; for instance NYS has full electronic trail and this is easy to solve; you can tell when and who padded the contracts with zeros; IFMIS tells us the bank accounts;Now imagine an opaque paper based system with dirty files like you see in any court in kenya. All you need to do is to make one file disappears and the case is lost or won.

Nobody will ever know who moved the file...maybe even rat did it. And that is Mutunga court. Or just burn the whole court...and end of story.

You can fight corruption using technology.
...
There should be full audio-visual recording at any courts, court proceedings transcribed, fines and bonds paid via mpesa or electronically, more arrangement for instant fines for petty crimes such as traffic offense.

Technology can never be better than the people who use it, and the NYS thing has just confirmed that again. 

Audio-visual equipment can be made to fail at the "right" times, instant fines simply move a problem to a different level, court dates in an electronic calendar can be changed, etc.

To put it quite simply, no amount of technology is going to be of much help where a person with a case can meet a judge (or judge's representative)  and hand over a fat envelope of cash to have the  case taken care of.

anything else has been tried and it has failed.

Far from it.   On the contrary, nobody has ever been serious about really dealing with corruption in Kenya.   

[Kim Jong-Un's Pajama Pants]

Every system can be gamed but technology makes it harder to game; for instance NYS has full electronic trail and this is easy to solve; you can tell when and who padded the contracts with zeros; IFMIS tells us the bank accounts;Now imagine an opaque paper based system with dirty files like you see in any court in kenya. All you need to do is to make one file disappears and the case is lost or won.

Nobody will ever know who moved the file...maybe even rat did it. And that is Mutunga court. Or just burn the whole court...and end of story.

You can fight corruption using technology.
...
There should be full audio-visual recording at any courts, court proceedings transcribed, fines and bonds paid via mpesa or electronically, more arrangement for instant fines for petty crimes such as traffic offense.

Technology can never be better than the people who use it, and the NYS thing has just confirmed that again. 

Audio-visual equipment can be made to fail at the "right" times, instant fines simply move a problem to a different level, court dates in an electronic calendar can be changed, etc.

To put it quite simply, no amount of technology is going to be of much help where a person with a case can meet a judge (or judge's representative)  and hand over a fat envelope of cash to have the  case taken care of.

anything else has been tried and it has failed.

Far from it.   On the contrary, nobody has ever been serious about really dealing with corruption in Kenya.   

Yes it can facilitate some things.  Yet it comes down to the person behind.  Those in charge of administering it.  The admins.  The IS auditors.  If these people can be bought off, the system can be made to say anything.  In NYS case, all that information is there now apparently in the public domain.  They even know where the money went.  But it looks like the culprits can just wait it out.

I think grand corruption cannot be tackled by Kenyans in the current setup.  They should probably consider outsourcing the fight against it.

[MOON Ki]

For instance NYS has full electronic trail and this is easy to solve; you can tell when and who padded the contracts with zeros; IFMIS tells us the bank accounts.

That is actually a very good example.    None of that stopped the theft.    We know the bank  accounts the money went to, but that will not make any of it flow back.   We can tell who padded the contracts and when, but none of them will be prosecuted.   And so such theft will continue.

[Kim Jong-Un's Pajama Pants]

For instance NYS has full electronic trail and this is easy to solve; you can tell when and who padded the contracts with zeros; IFMIS tells us the bank accounts.

That is actually a very good example.    None of that stopped the theft.    We know the bank  accounts the money went to, but that will not make any of it flow back.   We can tell who padded the contracts and when, but none of them will be prosecuted.   And so such theft will continue.

One could argue that one thing technology has done is help us confirm quickly that the problem is not a knowledge problem.  But rather cultural.  But that was obvious to me even before the technology confirmed it.

[RV Pundit]

That is really upto the prosecutor and the court; I think Tobiko has identified key areas that CID need to fill the gaps and for me this case is slam duck. This is a step forward. Unless you're self defeatist cynic.

That is actually a very good example.    None of that stopped the theft.    We know the bank  accounts the money went to, but that will not make any of it flow back.   We can tell who padded the contracts and when, but none of them will be prosecuted.   And so such theft will continue.