Political activist General Dr Miguna Miguna has challenged remarks attributed to Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna on the state of governance in Kenya.

In a post on X, Miguna argued that Kenya’s problems cannot be blamed on the absence of a lawyer in the presidency, saying the country has had many lawyers occupy powerful positions without necessarily eliminating corruption, brutality or impunity.

“Kenya is not a failed state and a country where impunity reigns because it has never had a lawyer as president,” Miguna said.

He further argued that there have been “millions of inept, corrupt and brutal lawyers” who have held positions of power in Kenya, Africa and elsewhere.

Miguna's remarks appear to challenge the idea that having a lawyer at the helm of government would, by itself, guarantee better governance or end impunity

Here is what Dr Miguna Miguna said.

Kenya is not a failed state and a country where impunity reigns because it has never had a lawyer as president. There are millions of inept, corrupt and brutal lawyers who have occupied positions of power in Kenya, Africa and the rest of the world. The judiciary has been one of the most corrupt and incompetent institutions despite being controlled and entirely led by lawyers. Lawyers are behind most fraudulent transactions at the Lands Office, at the AG Chambers, in various ministries, state corporations, universities and the private sector.

What Kenya and other African countries lack isn’t the absence of lawyers or people with particular degrees in leadership positions; what is lacking is leadership with INTEGRITY operating within a transformed state, institutions and systems.

Anyone stuck on “Ruto failed because he studied zoology, so I will succeed because I am a lawyer” is actually far worse than Ruto.

It’s not about what you studied. It’s not about your occupation. And it certainly is not about the “software.”

It is, at the root, about the structurally, architecturally, and institutionally DEFECTIVE colonial STATE, colonial INSTITUTIONS, colonial LAWS and colonial SYSTEMS, which were not designed to serve Africans. They were designed to EXTRACT, EXPLOIT and DEHUMANIZE Africans.

The colonial STATE is inherently inimical to EQUITY, constitutionalism, DIGNITY and SOCIAL JUSTICE, which ought to be our ultimate collective vision for our societies.

It’s also about a transformative and REVOLUTIONARY vision and INTEGRITY. Unless we focus on these things, the slogans about WANTAM, TUTAM, or any other, will continue to be nothing but clever manipulative propaganda to FORTIFY, entrench and perpetuate the unjust, inequitable and repressive colonial STATE.

I would rather have standard 8 leaders with integrity who are committed revolutionaries rather than corrupt lawyers, engineers, economists, theologians, teachers, accountants, zoologists, anthropologists, politicians, political scientists, physicians or physicists with a PhD.

Telling the truth is a revolutionary act