Chapter Six of the Kenya Constitution 2010, which talks about leadership and integrity, is among the most violated in the country today. While it outlines how public office holders are to behave in public and in private, legislators have breached it with impunity. Though a few of them have appeared in court, more stringent laws are required to ensure leaders behave with decorum and uphold the dignity of their offices.
The Commission for the Implementation of the Constitution wants a law to remove Members of County Assemblies (MCAs), including Members of Parliament from office if found to have violated Chapter Six. Also mooted is a law that would stop MCAs from removing governors from office on whimsical grounds.
Whereas we agree that laws alone will not reverse the low road that our politics has taken, it is one step no less significant in deterring the erosion of decorum and integrity. Ultimately, what is needed is a radical change in attitude; the people need to raise the bar of leadership; and the leaders need to know that they will face the music if they push the envelope too far. Being a democracy, we deserve the leaders we elect.
Some Members of Parliament have abused and demeaned their offices through their conduct. Apart from intimidating civil servants at their places of work, some have even been accused of sexual harassment and rape.
Embu and Makueni counties give good examples where governors have been besieged and hounded by MCAs. It became apparent from the beginning that Members of County Assemblies misunderstood their role. Over time, many have acted with utter lack of decorum. In Nakuru, Machakos, Nairobi and Makueni counties, for instance, MCAs have been reported to engage in fisticuffs while deliberating on issues in the Assembly chambers.
A lack of fiscal discipline saw MCAs embark on undertakings that left the country in an uproar, especially after the Controller of Budget revealed Sh4.9billion was spent on foreign junkets that did not benefit the taxpayer in the 2013/14 financial year. MCAs' desire to control most of the county funds for their own benefit has led to misuse of funds and serious infighting in counties. For the better part of 2014, some governors were kept busy in court, fighting impeachment after failing to accede to demands by MCAs.
Even though cases of MCAs behaving badly abound, in Makueni there has been too much bad blood that at a meeting in the County Assembly Hall in September last year, there was an exchange of fire in which five people were shot and injured.
The hopeless situation in Makueni caused Governor Kivutha Kibwana to call for its dissolution. The governor's call was backed by a citizen petition to the President, who later appointed a tribunal to conduct an inquiry to determine whether the petition was meritorious.
A law that would send Members of County Assembly and Members of Parliament packing would supplement Senator Kithure Kindiki's County Assemblies, Powers and Privileges Bill 2014, which criminalises assault, obstructing, molesting or causing injury to any other member of staff or forcefully compelling others through insults and coercion to either support or decline to support a Motion in the chambers. These acts of lawlessness have become synonymous with Members of County Assemblies.
The powers and privileges Bill also stripped MCAs of the immunity that Members of Parliament had demanded they be accorded while in the County Assembly chambers. It is an assault on national values and the code of ethics for elected leaders to misbehave and commit crime under the guise of immunity. Though laws alone will not get us the kind of leaders we want, it is worth starting somewhere.
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