Are Kenyan MPs planning to loot Treasury before they leave ?

Is Africa turning into a continent of greed from the leaders. In the past few weeks the world was treated to a rare drama when the Gambian president who had been defeated in a democratic elections refused to hand over office and after being forced to vacate the office by the Gambian neighbors, the former despot president asked to be given some few days in which he used to loot the already impoverished Gambians tax payers money together with the state's expensive vehicles and fled into exile leaving behind a nation whose economy he had destroyed for his selfish gain during his 22 years of misrule.

Back home, our members of parliament appear to be following into his foot steps.The members whose term of office is coming to an end as per the laws of the land, have hatched a plan to empty the Kenyan tax payers money before they leave office.

The MPs are demanding to be paid severance pay because they feel that their term in the office will not be complete by the time we go to the elections in August 2017 yet the elections laws are clear in our constitution. If MPs have an issue with the elections dates they should move to the constitutional court for arbitration not to find a short-cut to loot the Kenyan tax payers. And in any case, a severance pay is made to an employ whose contract with the employer has been terminated with little chance of coming back for the same employment which is not the case with our MPs.

Non of them has so far declared that they are demanding these money because they are quiting politics.What it means is that MPs want to be paid these huge sums of money in August so they can use it to campaign for the same seats and if they win, they then start earning again as from where they left. This an evil plan to defraud the Kenyan tax payers especially at a time when many Kenyans are undergoing tough economic times with some civil servants on strike including the doctors, lecturers, the biting drought and high level of unemployment. For our MPs to plot on how to pay themselves billions of money before they leave is not only evil but morally wrong.

The Sarah Serem led salary remuneration committee is supposed to deliberate on this issue and give its own proposal which many Kenyans will be waiting to see what proposal the SRC will come up with bearing in mind that in the last encounter with the MPs, they arm twisted the committee into accepting to lift the limit on how much an MP can earn in the allowance, a lee way in which many parliamentarians have abused as per the report that came from EACC.

The SRC has been obsessed with the issue of performance contract and salary harmonization when it comes to discussion of salary with other civil servants including teachers who have been forced to sign performance contract against their wishes but when it comes to matters concerning the MPs, rarely do we hear the SRC comment about the performance contract.

What is the role of a Kenyan MP after Kenyans adopted the devolved systems of government? Most of the parliamentarians functions were taken over by the governors and MCAs who are the engines of development at the grass root levels. Today the Kenyan MP remain largely under utilized and even the average monthly salary of 1 million they earn does not correlate to the work they do leading to an over-payment.

For the last five years that our MPs have been in parliament, very few of them have brought up bills that have touched the lives of many suffering Kenyans. Parliament has been reduced to political supremacy wars on competing forces and cutting of business deals by our members of parliament to enrich themselves, while the majority of Kenyans are going without food, medicine, shelter and of late water and yet they are among the highly taxed in the region.

Our members of parliament work only three days in a week and it is assumed that the remaining days are used to research on bills that will benefit the welfare of a common mwanachi  as it is done in the developed economies, but a majority of them have never in the five years period brought in the house any substantive bills to lift the lives of Kenyans. So what is the productivity index that the SRC should base on to pay them the billions that they are demanding to be paid?

Kenyans are eagerly waiting for that day the speaker of the National Assembly will recall the members of parliament from a recess to come and debate a bill that will pass a supplementary budget to enable the government purchase additional chemotherapy machines at Kenyatta referral hospital. This will reduce the suffering of many Kenyans who have to wait for many days on the unending queues. I also look forward to the day parliament will be recalled to allocate more funds to the Devolution Ministry to buy food for the majority of Kenyans who are under the threat of hunger or parliament being recalled to come and debate ways on how to ease the heavy tax burdens on those Kenyans who walk all the way from Kangemi, Kiambu, Kibera and Eastlands every morning towards industrial area to work in the industries and yet they cannot afford a meal three times a day because of the increased prices of food stuff.

That is the time that the SRC will have a reason to sit down with our MPS and discuss on the issue of salary remuneration but as at now there is virtually nothing that the SRC can discuss with the MPs on the issue of salary emolument.Today, reports from IEBC indicates that the rate of voter apathy in terms of registration has gone up simply because some Kenyans feel their core needs are not being addressed by these elected leaders and that is why Kenyans need to come up with ways of stopping our elective members of both national and county assemblies from turning these houses into business ventures. The 11th parliamentarians do not deserve any extra coin from the tax payers money when their term ends in August 2017, the government is already struggling with huge external debts and our MPs should not burden the tax payers again..

 

Seth Mwangani

NAIROBI