By Mwanje Gideon
In his 1839 novel Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens gave a name to a timeless frustration when the pompous Mr. Bumble famously snapped, “If the law supposes that….., the law is an ass—an idiot.” Confounded by a legal system that valued absurd, rigid rules over common sense, Bumble wished the law’s eyes would be “opened by experience.” Today, when the law remains stubborn, slow-witted, and blind to human truth, it proves Dickens right; it ceases to be a beacon of justice and becomes nothing more than a foolish, unfeeling ass (a donkey).
Now, let us bring the timeline to the present day, to a place where the law does not sit above men, but where some men sit comfortably above the law.
The nightmare begins not in a courtroom, but in the quiet safety of a home. A citizen is snatched. Stolen away in broad daylight by the state’s security machinery. The family, consumed by panic and grief, runs to the steps of the police station. They beg, cry, and plead for a simple missing person report or a kidnapping file to be opened.
But the police officers look at the floor. Fear hangs thick in the air and denies knowing his whereabouts. The people paid to be protectors have recognized the shadow of the hunter. No file is opened. No pen touches paper.
Then comes the ultimate insult to humanity: a prince, shielded by his status and power, loudly and proudly confesses to the public that there is blood on his hands. He boasts of the violence. And also shares images of his victim begging for mercy.
And what does the law do? It looks away.
For the common man, injustice is a physical and emotional assault. It is a suffocating realization that you are entirely unprotected.
When the blindfold of Lady Justice slips, she opens one eye. She looks out from beneath the cloth to see who is approaching her bench. If you are a prince, she smiles and lays down her weapon. But if you are a citizen running to her for refuge, she raises her heavy spear and drives it into your chest. The scales are broken; they lean entirely toward power.
The timeline takes a performative turn. After weeks of public outcry and backroom negotiations, the police suddenly discover its hands. They “receive” the victim. The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) quickly signs off on charges, and the court remands the broken citizen to prison.
The law, which stood frozen in the face of a confessed royal crime, suddenly moves with lightning speed to lock away the vulnerable.
When the law ceases to protect its people from terror, it ceases to be a system of justice. It reverts exactly to what Mr. Bumble called it: an ass, an idiot, a dead letter printed on paper and called a statute.
Our Constitution was framed by founders who envisioned a shield for the weak. Instead, the law has been rewritten by the powerful as a sword against the helpless. When the state becomes the predator, the common man is left with nothing but his voice to cry out against the machinery of an asymmetric world. If this is what the law does, then it is an ass! The author is a concerned Citizen. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
