The Star (Nairobi)

Kenya: It's Better Not to Hide Things

1 August 2013

editorial

A mysterious case is underway in the High Court where lawyers for President Uhuru Kenyatta have presented a petition against Safaricom and Airtel.

The proceedings remain confidential which the judiciary have insisted is normal. However what is abnormal is that we do not even know what the petition is about.

Uhuru's lawyers have indicated that they are seeking the telephone records of witnesses and want the proceedings to be kept confidential to protect their identities.

But this is a peculiar argument as the court could have kept them anonymous by simply referring to them as Witness 11 or Witness 4 .

Chief Registrar Gladys Shollei has indicated that details of the hearing will be released once the case is concluded this week. But that begs the question of why the proceedings had to be confidential in the first place.

Perhaps the Uhuru defence team hoped that the petition would successfully proceed in camera and pass unnoticed by the media.

If that was their expectation, they were very wrong. The 'confidential petition' has now received far more publicity than if it had been conducted in public.

The moral of the story must be to be open wherever possible because secrecy only stirs up popular interest.

Quote of the day: "Better sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian." - American author Herman Melville was born on August 1, 1819

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  • youkenyan
    Aug 2 2013, 03:19
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    This is happening in the Kenyan High Court? Mutunga, when kenyans from all corners supported your appointment they did NOT expect this to happen under your watch. Mutunga, your judiciary is singing the tune of the "power" as it used to sing in times of Evans Gicheru and Amos Wako. You are letting kenyans down. Mutunga-The Chief Justice.