By Jerry Okungu
Nairobi, Kenya
May 8, 2013
One week can be a long
time in politics. In the Kenyan situation, that one week can be even longer
because many things can change over that time.
Nine days since Senator
Mutula Kilonzo died, the people of Kenya have shifted gear. Cabinet nominations
and their attendant vetting process have been relegated to the back banners.
Nobody talks about anything else except to speculate how the Senator died.
What perhaps has been
competing for news with Mutula’s death have been the wrangles over
parliamentary committees between the ruling Jubilee Coalition and the Minority CORD coalition in the august
house and of course the MPs baying for the blood of the Chairman of the Salaries Remuneration
Commission for slashing their salaries from
Ksh 840,000 to 530,000 per month.
These two issues have been
so much in the minds of the elected members of parliament that discussing the
brutal killings in Bungoma, Busia, and Garissa has been a boring task.
Of particular concern to
Kenyans is the persistent demand by MPs and County representatives to demand
higher salaries even as fellow Kenyans go hungry in the slums in villages. In
fact, listening to MPs talking in parliament and at funerals, one gets the
feeling that this country is under the spell of some demon out to drive it into
a civil strife.
Last weekend, some MPs
from Nyanza and Rift Valley made very dangerous remarks when they gathered for
a church funds drive in poverty stricken Kapsabet in Nandi County of Rift
Valley. The meeting was attended by Homa Bay MP, Peter Kaluma who promised to
triple the MPS’ salaries after disbanding the Salaries Remuneration Commission.
In fact Kaluma demanded a salary of Ksh 2 million per month because according
to him, he had left a job where his salary was Ksh 1 million per month. This
remark was made in front of mourners who live on less than 30 dollars a month.
Other MPs at the meeting
who supported his demand were Elijah Lagat
of Lesumei, Oscar Sudi of Kapseset, Charles Gimose of Hamisi, Zipporah
Kering of Nandi County and Dr. Robert Bukose of Endebes.
The only MP present who
had the common decency to differ with his colleagues over this salary issue was
Hon Stephen Bitok of Mosop who stated categorically that high salaries should
not be the priority of elected leaders when so many Kenyans are suffering at
this moment in time.
The level at which elected
leaders have reached with their demands can only mean one thing; they do not
care about the welfare of Kenyans and the country. In their mind, the country
could burn to hell so long as their greed can be satisfied.
This mentality leaves us
with two choices: to ask the coalition leaders that include President Uhuru
Kenyatta, William Ruto and Raila Odinga to read the riot act for the ring
leaders if they cannot have the decency to know the difference between what is
moral and what is not. Party leaders
must take charge and provide leadership both inside and outside parliament.
Those who went to parliament like Peter Kaluma thinking that parliament is a
bottomless money minting pit must be shown the door so that they can go back to
their former jobs where they earned Ksh 1 million a month.
The second choice is for
Kenyans who love this country to prepare to disband the current parliament so
that the people of Kenya can reclaim their country and sovereignty. We did not
elect these people to go and run this country down. Four hundred Kenyans cannot
hold the country at ransom simply because we elected them.
President Uhuru Kenyatta
cannot let a few elected leaders squander the good will Kenyans have given him
since his encounter with Daniel Owira at the Drama Festival in Mombasa. Owira
the slum boy impressed Uhuru Kenyatta so much that since then the President has
invited him to State House together with his relatives and adopted him as one
of his sons.
President Kenyatta’s
gesture has no parallel in Kenya’s political history. No president, dead or
alive has gone out of his way to adopt a slum child and promise to educate him
to university. All we have had are populist leaders who have preferred to give
handouts to youths in slums for purposes of political campaigns. This time
round, the President confounded friends and foes by adopting a child, not from
his tribe but of the tribe that has never voted for him.
If elected MPs and County
representatives want to be taken seriously, they must use their eyes and ears
to digest what President Uhuru Kenyatta is saying and doing and emulate the
same. If the President is saying that our public wage bill is the highest in
Africa, elected leaders worth their salt should get worried and find a solution
to the problem not compound it. If the President has come to the rescue of a
slum child and adopted him, elected leaders should follow that example and
support such initiatives.
I’m not saying that
elected leaders should rush to slums and villages to adopt poor children.
Rather, they should pass good laws that will direct more funds to alleviate
poverty in these poor neighborhoods rather that craving to line their pockets
with public funds. This is the only way to avert a social revolution in Kenya.
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