Whether or not you are in jail should not depend on your ability to pay for your freedom, yet that’s the way our current money bail system works.
People with money can almost always buy their way to freedom, regardless of the charges against them. It is one of the most corrupt and broken parts of our justice system that despite escalating crime cases, criminals and corrupt individuals are being released on bail by the courts day in day out.
I am arguing the question of rule of law, the place of courts and rights and I don’t conceal my disapproval of some concepts I consider too Western and suited for developed societies.
My frustration with bail and bond is not without basis. We are in a society whose membership resorts to mob injustice partly because of faint confidence in the formal justice system.
Individuals are arrested for corruption and even murder, they are handed over to the court, get bail/bond, get back to the streets and the people cannot do anything about it.
In fact, in some instances, criminals are booked into police cells and contemptibly insulting the public and law enforcers, assuring them they will be out soon. And indeed they are freed; thanks to bond and bail.
Kenyans have witnessed various bond and bail cases including NYS, NCPB, Kenya Power, Rio Scandal, Governor Obado murder/corruption charge among others.
That is before one delves into the murky underworld of corruption within our corridors of justice.
It defeats the spirit of the law and is an abuse of the discretion of the judicial officers.
It doesn’t add value to the fight against crime but worsens matters when cartels and empires of criminality involving crooked lawyers, judicial officers whose integrity is not worth the ink and paper appointing them.
If Maraga asked his research assistants and legal team to do a survey of cases where courts have released suspects of corruption, murder, terrorism and rape on bail, he may be humbled to a shell of shock by the figures.
Even more, the courts have time and again offered useful guidance on bail so much so that we now have a loose golden standard that guides judicial officers, never mind that some are inspired to make decisions based on corruption.
In other words, the judiciary is reputed to be “fantastically corrupt” and cannot be expected to smell like roses.
The public perception of rights like bail and bond are utopian and out of touch with the circumstances of our society. Maybe there is one law for the rich and another for the poor or Maybe not!Mwangi X Muthiora is a political commentator, a blogger and a poet.