The role of legal ethics and jurisprudence in nation building. Mediation: a solution for the legal sector crisis

The business of Government and Good Governance at that is no easy task anywhere in the world. Kenya is no exception and with the advent of Multi Party Democracy in 2002, Kenyans have waited with baited breath and in optimistic anticipation of the much wanted and often promised reforms and changes that true democracy should bring.

The oft recited saying of “Rule of the People by the People for the People” rings hollow. Post KANU we looked forward to being ruled by the New Guard and indeed accepted that democratically elected Members of Parliament would do the ruling. However any suggestion that the New Government would be doing this for our benefit erodes visibly in front of our very eyes day by day as the juggermant called Government sinks slowly into a morass of indecision and contradiction. If any energy is being displayed it is usually negative and spent on endless, meaningless, tribal posturing and politicking.

Politics is all well and good. In fact Kenyans are past masters and could teach the world a thing or two yet the force and bravado of the sycophancy demanded and given by and to our politicians makes mockery of the tenets of the Rule of Law and Separation of Powers of the Legislature, the Executive and the Judiciary. Parliament should make our Laws, the Judiciary interpret and enforce them and the Executive administer them.

So goes the theory yet the edges between these powers are so blurred as to be almost indefinable.

No one of these arms of Government is superior or more powerful than the other save that where there is excess, it is for the Judiciary to rein in and demand the Executive exercise control. Without a strong Judiciary and the Rule of Law, the other two arms of Government remain unchecked often leading to the contemptuous treatment of the populace.