Come on get over it, drive the Passat

By Andrew Kipkemboi

My colleague pored over the crystal clear windows of the spotless Volkswagen Passat. He was sure that the diminutive frame slouched in the back seat was not one in President Kibaki’s 41-member Cabinet. Yet the flag fluttered in the wind and the VW Passat gleamed in the evening sun.

It was when he turned his eyes to the front seat that he knew for whom the flag waved. Caught up in the evening traffic on Mombasa Road was Justice minister Mutula Kilonzo on his way to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. The minister was thumbing through pages of documents in the front seat.

Evidently, there was enough room for his office work in his new limousine. That is the beauty of the VW Passat story.

It is a story that has brought relief to citizens cut off from its Government and burdened by a ballooning tax bill. It is a story of the utter panic occasioned to wielders of power. It is the battle of thrift and wastefulness. The battle of virtue and vice.

Uhuru wants to save Sh18.9 billion in fuel and maintenance from the purchase of the car named after trade wind in German. That is no little money. It actually costs the Government as much to fund the Free Primary Education. With a billion shillings, Uhuru can buy treated nets for every children threatened by malaria. What is more, others before him, Simeon Nyachae, Musalia Mudavadi and even Amos Kimunya tried unsuccessfully to rein in public spending.

For the man on the street, it is natural to get exasperated when nearly every top-of-the-range vehicle on the road bears Government of Kenya plates. It raises concerns about priorities especially in the face of destitute masses, rising unemployment and uncontrolled crime.

Serious cars

As we waited to meet the French Foreign Affairs minister in Paris last year, a Citroen pulled up and a sprightly short man sprung out of the car. From his car, it was easy to mistake Bernard Kouchner for another small Government functionary. Citroen is a less glamorous car, but here was a senior minister in one of the world’s rich nations using it as an official car. Those in our delegation, mostly from poor Africa, where ministers drive in "serious cars", gazed in awe.

To many, Uhuru Kenyatta has pulled a rabbit out of the hat and nailed Government wastefulness and corruption that ensues. And so for millions of Kenyans trapped in a hardscrabble life, the protestations by the ministers don’t add up. Deputy Prime minister Musalia Mudavadi’s, Immigration minister Otieno Kajwang’s and Housing minister Soita Shitanda’s rejection of the VW Passat is less because they are not suited for their nature of work than because of the politicians’ unmatched appetite for ostentation. After all, most of the rebellious characters are first-time ministers and might have relished the moments in the grandeur of a Mercedes Benz.

Lest the vituperation of Finance minister by fellow ministers sway public opinion on the need to pare back public expenditure, Uhuru’s move is one of the boldest policy moves comparable to the switch in the education system in the 1980s. It is a radical change. As change goes, many, not all, will embrace it.

There is no point therefore fretting about the VW Passats. Calling into question the tendering of the VW Passats clouds the issues. In truth, the guzzlers that the Government is getting rid off have airs and graces.

They are mean, intimidating and macho. The notorious red tape in government and the decadence among the ruling class is manifested in a deeply tinted juggernaut gliding through traffic. Those in them seem cut off from us and left to their own ways, good or bad. The VW Passat is accessible and friendly, almost cheerful. The VW Passat makes us equal.

But the reactionaries in Cabinet remind us of the low road that our politics has taken and the lifestyle of grotesque luxury that most of them lead.

Blackmailing the VW Passat even before a smoking gun is found poisons the air and cheapens our politics.

Car loan

No doubt, politics has always provided the avenue to wealth and power and moreover, as Members of Parliament, the honourables are entitled to a Sh3 million interest-free car loan, which they can use to buy an off-road to use in forays in their constituencies. Therefore, for a trip to Mbooni, Kilonzo could use the car he bought as the representative of Mbooni. His disapproval of the VW Passat as unfit to take him home misses the point.

Otherwise it is easy to misconstrue the mutterings about the VW Passats as those of envious colleagues trying to pull the rug from under Uhuru’s feet assuming that he has an edge over them in the race to be Kenya’s fourth President

The writer is The Standard’s Foreign News Editor akipkemboi@standardmedia.co.ke

 

 

Read all about: Uhuru Kenyatta

 

 

---