The September 1st decision by the Kenya Supreme Court to cancel the recent presidential elections is courageous and principled . Whether this  results in a peaceful rerun (hopefully) or in violent troubles (God forbids !) is a risk that the judges took . It is now up to the population to rise to the level of courage and lucidity of their judicial brethren. The responsability is incumbent on every Kenyan citizen . But meanwhile , what a spendid lesson in democracy ! Coming from the continent where that political choice is so often frustrated and brutally manhandled . Kenyans can certainly boast about the degree of maturity of their political system which has so often in the past come very short of decent behaviour . Every participant — pro or con — in the running of public life has been promoted and his situation/action dramatized positively or negatively by the decision of the Kenyan judges . Both President Kenyatta — by accepting the verdict — and chief challenger Oginga Odinga — by calling for a peaceful response — have risen to the occasion . And helped Africa into political adulthood and responsability . Whether the charges that led to the verdict are correct or not is secondary . Julius Caesar repudiated his wife who was accused of infidelity . Some friends of the Roman politician tried to defend her , saying that the accusation was false and due to envy . “It could be , answered the Roman general , and if so we will remain friends ; but the wife of Caesar cannot be under suspicion”. That this statement can apply today to a key segment of Africa’s politics is an inceredible democratic leap forward . Tonight every African (and non-African) dictator or life-president will sleep less at ease . The whole world stands in gratitude to these Nairobi judges .

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