Of Ear rings andHearings

In the coming week(s),you'll probably hear more about ear rings than you have before.The media will be forced, for a while, to discuss the small matter of garments and adornment.There will probably be On-Studio professors from Moi University and University of Nairobi giving their all-important two mites on studs and their socio-political construct.

Expect some religious men and women to drag their Bibles to live interviews as they attempt to mine from the Infinite Mind gems that would condemn ear rings.This will be a week of revival and reformation in a special sense.

Naturally,there will be some beautiful cosmetician gracing your screen sharing with you how ear rings have transformed lives of millions.And herself.

If Mike Sonko is an example,I need not tell you what the Kenyan politician will be up to--it is largely unpredictable really.



Depending on the decibels that we will have hit by Friday,voices like those of the so-called Wanjiku will have been drowned and deadened in the din of political cacophony.



It is not the intention of this note to interrogate the Kenyan body-politic but the moral fibre.Both ways,Dr.Willy Mutunga will realise that Mr.Ahmednassir Abdullahi had been kind.The real trial and hearing now begins in earnest.If,or when,he ascends to that office,Dr.Mutunga will be a thoroughly dissected man.



The charges that Dr.Mutunga will be answering this week are not limited to the tenancy of his ear lobes.The filed divorce case against his estranged wife will be fodder for the conservative,the traditional family believer.I think the legal principle is called Double Jeopardy--and Dr.Mutunga will have to bear with that.

To quote one of his supporters:

'Willy has a D. Jur degree from Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, and an LL.B. and LL.M. from the University of Dar es Salaam. He is a Senior Counsel and Advocate of the High Court of Kenya.

His moral credentials have been put on the spotlight especially the stud he proudly dons with sections of critics claiming he is gay. Sexual deviancy in Kenya is a big issue and time will tell how he will be received by the general populace. Personally, we never asked whether he was straight or not when he crashed with the police fighting for political liberalization on the streets of Nairobi...''

So,do Kenyans have double standards? Is it that we,as human beings,only ascend to that high moral ground when it serves our ends?

The Christian has read that the Lord looks at the heart and not the outward appearance..that it is what is inside that matters..Is this sound theology or is the application misplaced and wrong?

Does the fact that Dr.Mutunga supports gay rights and so on present a moral problem for the conservative?..And to what extent then can one support human rights?

Can men spot ear rings and saunter around with them?Or,should anybody(man or woman) do so for that matter?

Can we fashion a god and worship him/her/it whichever way we like?

In public office,are we allowed to go against the grain in matters of belief?

Needless to say,Willy's dirt and garbage will be in your dailies and on your screens..But can you accept the man's eccentricities and strange demeanour for the sake of political expediency and convenience?

As a friend recently tweeted:'Do you want Morality or Competence?"



In Willy Mutunga,it is not likely to be both.