A month after being elected to Parliament,
Budalang’i MP Raphael Wanjala made a ridiculous demand that MPs’ extended
families should be given medical insurance. The demand was disappointing for at
least five reasons. First, as a job seeker, Mr Wanjala knew or ought to have
known the terms of his contract before asking for the seat. We presume he had
read the terms and therefore knew that only one wife and four children could be
covered under the law. Second, Kenyans are experiencing tough economic times. To
ask them to cater for extra medical insurance for polygamous men is to add salt
to fresh wounds. While we are struggling to meet our own medical expenses as
low income earners, a State officer who pockets about Sh1 million per month
wants us to help him cater for his family’s medical expenses!
Third, the choice to have one wife or more
is personal. Before marrying a second, third or fourth wife, Hon Wanjala had or
ought to have weighed his pockets and satisfied himself that he was
economically capable of catering for his large family. Fourth, you cannot put
yourself in a difficult economic situation by marrying several wives then argue
that you have been discriminated against. You chose to put yourself in that
situation because it pleased you. The right to equal treatment before the law
does not contemplate situations where one deliberately puts himself in a fix to
enjoy the benefits that come with it. Fifth, to grant this ridiculous request
is to open a Pandora’s Box. All the MPs shall likely come up with fictitious
names of purported wives for insurance coverage. Wanjala should apologize to
Kenyans.