KITUYI: Makau Mutua’s fast fall from principle to power’s defender

Professor Makau Mutua’s attack on Kenya’s celebrated cartoonist Gado cannot pass unchallenged.

For years, Prof. Makau was among the loudest, most relentless voices against the governments and particularly when President Uhuru Kenyatta and his then–Deputy, William Ruto took power in 2013.

He lambasted them on corruption, human rights abuses, and the erosion of constitutionalism. And when Ruto ascended to the presidency in 2022, Makau wasted no time continuing his blistering criticism. 

For over a decade, he spoke and wrote with the fire of a man unafraid of authority, cultivating the image of a principled reformer who stood for human rights no matter the cost. As a globally recognised legal scholar and respected human rights defender, he seemed untouchable by political compromise, until now.

But barely three months into his role as senior constitutional affairs adviser in the Kenya Kwanza administration, courtesy of the broad-based pact between Ruto and Raila Odinga, Prof. Makau has undergone a dramatic transformation, and not for the better.

In the words of Abraham Lincoln, “nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” The Professor, once a respected defender of constitutionalism, now stands as living proof of how power strips away principle.

In barely 100 days in his new role, the Professor has shed his mask, already mimicking the same intolerant power-holders he once condemned in endless essays.

His latest target is none other than Gado, Kenya’s most celebrated editorial cartoonist, whose recent sketch shows him tucked into the side pocket of President Ruto’s signature Kaunda suit, puffing a cigar, a satirical jab at his new role, created through a Presidential Proclamation, to coordinate compensation for victims of protests and riots.

Instead of defending the sacred space of artistic expression, the same freedom he once enjoyed penning hard-hitting criticism and condemning previous governments in the harshest possible terms, he now calls it “political pornography”. He even claims it was deployed to mock victims of protests and their families. In his newfound spirit of intolerance, he is quickly adapting to the very habits he once decried.

The irony is too thick to ignore. This same man built his name and career by dissecting other people’s work in the court of public opinion, sometimes without mercy, always claiming the high moral ground. Now, when he gets a “little little” title, he cannot even stomach a drawing.

Most of these people – Makau’s type carry big titles, but their reformist claims are fake. They pretend to champion rights against others, yet they themselves do not practice the things they champion. Thin-skinned, intolerant, and dictatorial in spirit, they only lack the opportunity to show it. Once they get a seat close to power, even a ceremonial one, the mask falls off. They start behaving with the same paranoia and arrogance as the very people they used to condemn.

Professor Makau’s reaction to Gado’s cartoon tells us one thing clearly that his loyalty is now to the regime, not to principles. His words are no longer those of a human rights defender but of a government enforcer who sees criticism as an attack on his master. He is already speaking in the language of oppression, the language of silencing, and the language of “how dare you mock us.”

Yet, this is the same man who used to defend the idea that leaders must be held accountable through all forms of speech, including satire, which is one of the oldest and most effective tools of political criticism.

If Gado’s cartoon had targeted the Kenyatta and Ruto regime before his appointment, Makau would have been the first to praise it as “a courageous act in defense of democracy.” However, when the joke lands too close to his new home in State House circles, suddenly it is “political pornography.”

All Kenyans must call out this dangerous hypocrisy. Because the bigger problem is not just Prof. Makau himself, but is about the whole tribe of public intellectuals who pretend to be fearless critics when they are outside power, but once they are absorbed into the system, they become attack dogs for the same system. They start using the same tricks they once condemned - intimidation, moral posturing, and public shaming of dissenters.

And this is how a democracy dies in small doses. Not only through the actions of obvious dictators but also through the quiet betrayal of those who once claimed to stand for freedom. It dies when the people who should be the conscience of the nation choose instead to be defenders of political convenience.

Prof. Makau’s fall from grace has been so fast. In less than four months, he sounds more like the official spokesperson of an insecure regime than the independent scholar he once was. If he can go this low so quickly, one wonders how far he will sink if he remains in this position longer.

Let it be understood that nobody is above criticism, not even cartoonists, and certainly not the once reasonable Prof himself. But when a man who built his entire brand on the defense of human rights, including free expression, now turns his guns on free speech because it bruises his and his boss’s ego, we must see it for what it is as the naked hypocrisy of power.

Kenyans must remember that freedom of expression is not just for those we agree with, it is especially for those we do not. Today, it is Gado’s cartoon branded “pornography.” Tomorrow, it could be your Facebook post, your tweet, your TikTok video, or your protest placard.

Prof Makau may think his shiny new State House title places him beyond reproach, but history keeps meticulous records, and it writes such betrayals in indelible ink. When his chapter is told, it will not remember him as the fearless defender of human rights he once claimed to be, but as the man who traded his voice for proximity to power and lost his moral compass with breathtaking speed.

Today, he stands not with the people and the open civic space he once championed, but in the warm embrace of the very regime, he once condemned. All it took was less than 100 days, a prestigious office, and a taste of political privilege. That is not just disappointing but rather a disgrace.

Kituyi is a journalist