By X.N. Iraki

We should not complain that our elected leaders are demanding higher salaries; we created the problem. We let the sitting MPs have a say in writing the new Constitution. They did what any human being would have done; take care of his or her interests.

Let us explain. Before the 2010 Constitution, MPs were under the mercy of the Executive who held over their head the threat of dissolving the Parliament should they not “behave”.

Now Parliament has its own calendar and the Executive has almost no oversight over the MPs. The threat of recall after half the term is hollow at best.  The MPs, with the county reps taking cue, are not really interested in advancing the interests of the voters.

They must first advance their interests. Compare their first agenda, salary hikes, with what they promised you in the election rallies.

Self-actualisation

Why are the MPs and other elected leaders behaving like that? What can we do about that?

It is all psychology. Few of the MPs and county reps have reached the top of Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs — self-actualisation. They are still in the lowest levels trying to satisfy physiological and safety needs.  The demand for higher salary and cars has a lot to do with lack of self-actualisation and esteem.

They have never seen the car as a means of transport, but a status symbol. Anyone who has reached Maslow’s highest level should have recognised that. Some of Kenya’s most affluent drive a Vitz…

The extra money they want is not for their basic needs, it’s to try and use as ladder to higher levels on Maslow’s hierarchy. The demand for more money, long before you have shown any evidence of being productive in your new job is incompatible with rational economic thinking.

But there is something else driving our reps to demand more money — they are hedging. The election results at both county and national levels indicate that lots of sitting MPs and councillors (county reps) lose their jobs, read not re-elected.

It makes “economic” sense to make as much hay as you can when the sun shines, before you are booted out by ungrateful voters. They voted Amos Kimunya out despite getting them a tarmac road, after almost 50 years...

Money available

The MPs also know that you strike when the iron is hot; if you let things settle, it will be very hard to get the salary hikes. Before the new government settles, extract as many concessions as you can.

The other reason why they are demanding more money is because it’s there! MPs know too well that tax is collected by the Government and lumped up which makes it appear lots of money. They know the Government can always borrow if there is a shortage of money.

The delinking of how governments raise their funds and how they are used has put current and past governments in a rut. We have a revenue allocation commission, but none on revenue enhancement or generation.

Few MPs ever talk about how we can enhance the productive capacity of the economy to raise more revenues and therefore raise more taxes and better salaries. We all hope that the inclusion of technocrats from the private sector will change this thinking.

Some observers have argued almost to the point of conviction that our leaders want to make money because nothing else matter, there is no reward for serving the public no matter how much you volunteer.

They cite several former MPs who are destitute after “failing” to steal while in leadership positions.  Perhaps ensuring that MPs have a decent pension might reduce their appetite for self -preservation after leaving office. Why don’t we have a monetary prize for the best performing MP after five years?

What can we do to rein our MPs?

A bold suggestion is that we should elect only rich people to be our MPs and county representatives. Such people are likely to have reached the apex of Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs and more interested in leaving a legacy. Others could counter argue that the richer you get, the richer you want to be. It would be interesting to check the wealth declaration forms of the MPs who are in the forefront in demanding salary hikes.

Let’s be fair to MPs, even ordinary Kenyans want salary hikes without commensurate hike in performance or productivity. We seem wired to pursue self-interests often at the expense of public interests.

What about linking MPs pay to economic growth rate? Salary and remuneration commission can stick to the current salaries for the MPs and county reps but increase them annually depending on economic performance; say GDP growth plus inflation rate. If GDP grows by 10 per cent and inflation rate is five per cent, they get a 15 per cent salary increase.

National interests

Such a system would ensure that the interests of the MPs and other representatives rhyme with national interests, the same way firms listing on Nairobi and other exchanges reserve shares and stocks for their employees.

This ensures if the employees work hard and are more productive, they share the proceeds through higher profits and by extension higher share prices and increase in their personal wealth.

We can also go for volunteers to be MPs. Didn’t we have such a system under the council of elders in almost every African community? Don’t we have people volunteering their services in churches, schools and NGOs? Don’t we have company board of directors getting a token of appreciation and not real salaries? The honour of serving the country and immortalising your name cannot be equated to any salary.

Salary paradox

Resolving the salary paradox will need a psychological re-alignment, where our leaders see serving as an honour, a means to self –actualisation not a means to livelihood.

A pure-economic perspective will not take as far. Money can never be enough and the more you have the more you want.

Perhaps thinking intergenerational, about those who will come long after our feeble bodies have crumbled into dust might reduce our leaders’ appetite for money. Kenya will not become a Swahili Tiger if we all want to milk a cow called Kenya that no one wants to feed.