By Jerry Okungu
Nairobi, Kenya
May 29, 2013
A few weeks ago, Deputy
President William Ruto met with Kenya Electricity board to impress it upon them
not to increase their tariffs under the present hard economic times because
such a move would hurt ordinary consumers and the manufacturing sector more.
Following that high level meeting, it was announced to the relief of many
consumers that the tariff hike would be pushed to a later date when the economy
will have picked up.
A few weeks later, and
just days after the appointment and confirmation of the new Cabinet Secretary
for Energy, another high level meeting, this time attended by the Cabinet
Secretary, discussed the same thorny issue and directed that there should be no
increase in electricity tariffs or connection charges.
However, within 48 hours,
Kenya Electricity board announced new connection rates with a pointer that
power bills would soon be revised to conform to the prevailing economic
conditions. This statement can only mean one thing: Kenyans should brace
themselves for higher electricity bills in the near future.
During the official
opening of the 11th parliament, President Kenyatta reminded our MPs
that before they clamour for higher salaries, they should be mindful of
millions of Kenyans who are languishing in abject power. Again he implored the
MPs to wait for the economy to pick up before asking for a pay raise. However,
early this week, parliament made good its threat to revoke the SRC Gazette
notice that fixed their salaries at Ksh 531,000 instead of the Ksh 831,000 that
the 10th parliament used to earn.
Apart from disregarding
the presidential plea for the MPs to abandon their clamour for more pay, the MPs
have gone ahead to defy a constitutional authority on salaries for State
Officers. The danger is; if one arm of the government defies the constitution;
will this act of impunity not open a Pandora’s Box?
By the way things stand, Kenyans may begin to witness a kind of rebellion never
seen before in the history of this country. Who would have imagined that a
group of MPs would conspire to insubordinate the Head of State? It certainly
never happened in Jomo Kenyatta’s time and Daniel arap Moi’s era. However, the
authority of the Head of State was drastically eroded during Kibaki’s time but
it didn’t come as early as it has done for President Uhuru Kenyatta.
The origin of the
disappearance of State authority started with coalition governments that we
introduced into our political system way back in 2002. When the ruling party
cannot garner a simple majority and cobbles up smaller parties to boost its
numbers, these smaller parties come with their unique problems in the knowledge
that the mother party cannot do without them.
The rebellion we are
seeing now is not confined to President Uhuru Kenyatta’s ruling coalition. Cord
is not left behind. Just the other day, Gwassi MP, Hon Mbadi threw all caution
to the wind to tell parliament how he told his party leader Raila Odinga to
keep off the salaries debate! That speech spoke volumes. It showed that even
Raila Odinga was losing control of his soldiers in parliament.
This lack of respect for
the Head of State or Party leaders is a pointer to the fact there is a
breakdown of law and order in political parties. With so many parties coming
together basically to win an election, enforcing party discipline has become an
uphill task. In Jomo and Moi’s era, the ruling party was one and it was known.
The party of Baba na Mama was a structured machine. Any deviation from its
rules and regulations would mean heaven and earth falling on the culprit
instantly.
Right now MPs are spoiling
for a fight. Now that they have successfully pulled down the gazette notice on
State Officers salaries, they have tasted blood. Now they are targeting the
Senate. Rumour has it that they want to move a motion in parliament to disband
the Senate on the grounds that it is a waste of public funds. If they succeed
in that, history will have repeated itself in our life time.
However the main
motivation is not that MPs want to save our hard earned money. The truth is
they don’t want to share power and glory with another group of parliamentarians
called Senators whom Kenyans are beginning to see as more sensible than members
of the National Assembly.
What MPs have done with
the SRC will have snowball effect. If they get away with their pay hike, very
soon we will see university dons, doctors, teachers, nurses, civil servants and
all manner of civil servants downing their tools demanding more pay perks.
Already teachers have indicated that they will demand Ksh 50 billion released
to them immediately.
Yes , it is time Uhuru
Kenyatta stood firm and read the riot act to his MPs who are the majority in
Parliament.
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