mzalendo :: Eye On Kenyan Parliament

• Feed the People Not the Fat Cats

  Posted: March 27, 2008, 12:29 pm by admin

  By Mwalimu Mati

  It is astonishing to hear that some crazy person, or people have suggested
  a Kenya Cabinet size of 44. According to the 2007/8 budget the total cost of running 34 ministries
  this year is Ksh 299.6 billion (an average of Ksh 8 billion per ministry
  per annum). Using the same average cost, 44 Ministries might cost you and
  I about Ksh 387 billion. Are you prepared to fork out another 100 billion
  shillings or so every year to accommodate your Member of Parliament’s
  desire to have a flag and to be called “Waziri”?

  Let’s be clear, MPs were elected to represent us, not to agitate for
  wasteful government expenditure in the name of power sharing. Certainly,
  they are not meant to be inciting Government to spend Ksh 100 billion more
  for no serious purpose beyond contriving to get Mwai Kibaki and Raila
  Odinga to give them sinecures at public expense.

  If you read the 2007/2008 Estimates of Recurring Expenditure of the
  Government of Kenya, you will find that Ksh 100 billion per year is
  equivalent to Kenya’s current annual public debt repayments. Ksh 100
  billion would finance the youth fund for 100 years and the women’s fund
  for 50 years. Ksh 100 billion would build ten 10-lane highways each of 50
  km of length – the distance between Nairobi and Thika. It is twice the
  aid in loans and grants received from bilateral partners for development;
  and four times all the grants Kenya receives from multilaterals such as
  the World Bank.

  We cannot afford to spend Ksh 100 billion this year on a bloated
  government. We have better things to do with our money. What has the GOK
  done about IDPs who are still living in tents and being chased from place
  to place by GOK security personnel whenever they dare to complain about
  their abysmal living conditions? Nothing. What provision is really being
  made for the resettlement and welfare of these unfortunate fellow
  citizens? Your guess is as good as mine. Do the people negotiating the
  size of the Cabinet have even a spare thought for the IDPs? I doubt it.
  Ksh 100 Billion is two times as much as we all lost because of corruption
  in Anglo Leasing. It is twice the amount of money Treasury will raise
  from the sale of public shares in Safaricom. In fact it is equivalent to
  at least 5 years of Safaricom’s profit at 17 billion shillings.

  Kenya needs a good government not a big one. Today noone seriously argues
  that we have a good government in place. In fact, and here I am
  suggesting a vetting methodology for high offices, only 7 of the current
  Ministers would pass the test of not being adversely mentioned in PAC,
  PIC, KACC reports, or adverse court judgements. At over 30 Ministries
  (larger and better paid at top level than any World power) we already have
  a big government. Who is trying to get us to pay more for an even larger
  cabinet? For how long can we continue this way?

  In my opinion, we need no more than 12 Ministries with one Assistant each.
  The rest of the Members of Parliament should represent us as they were
  voted, and are paid quite handsomely, to do from the Back Benches on both
  sides. We need good honest technocrats to run the public service for the
  benefit of the public with minimal political interference by temporary
  ministers. We need to stop pampering politicians who only recently caused
  us all to have the life threatening, or near death experience that we
  euphemistically call the “post election crisis”. On this point many of
  those jostling and lining up for positions at our expense ought properly
  to be investigated for their individual roles in the making of this
  crisis. What were many of them doing in the run-up to the election of
  December 27th 2007? Where were many of them when we needed them to help
  Kenyans? Who has mismanaged our public resources in the past, present and
  in the near future if we don’t stop them? Indeed these are questions we
  should be focusing our energy in answering.

  Our immediate and priority concern should be directed to the poorest and
  not the wealthiest Kenyans. Nearly twenty million Kenyans live on less
  than Ksh 64 per day. That means they will make no more or have no more to
  spend than Ksh 25,000 in a whole year. And that is for families! These
  are the Kenyans we should be spending money on. I would prefer to spend
  100 billion shillings this coming year on poor Kenyans rather than
  continuing to fatten political sacred cows.

  Finally, the only reason such a proposal is even seeing the light of day
  is the fact that despite the clear provisions of section 16 of the
  Constitution, Parliament has never made a law to establish and determine
  the number and portfolios of the Cabinet. Never - in 45 years! Is this
  the reason why there is no outrage from our elected MPs about the abuse of
  authority and culture of sinecures which has persisted in Kenya since the
  days of Jomo Kenyatta?

  [Mzalendo readers what are your views on the Cabinet? What should be the ideal size? What reforms need to be undertaken? ]

Blah blah blah

Fish cakes

Alas a fish cake.

Yet more fish cakes

Guess what ... yeah ... fish cakes.

The end of the fish cakes