Members of Parliament shopping trip to China is height of folly

If the hapless taxpayer didn’t have to meet the expense, the latest extravagance from Members of the National Assembly would have been a matter for mirth. But it seems our honourable members are not yet done with coming up with ways to enrich themselves at the public expense.

Last week, there reports that members of the Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC) are pushing the Speaker of the National Assembly Justin Muturi to authorise a team to go to China to shop for furniture for their offices at County Hall.

To his credit, Mr Muturi admits that although the China trip is not necessary, he is helpless to stop the MPs, who are bent on spending the public money willy-nilly and have refused to listen to good advice even from their own colleagues.

Can they be stopped?

Can anyone stop these MPs from taking this country to depths we haven’t seen yet? On the face of it the money isn’t all that much when viewed against the background of a Sh1.65 trillion budget estimate for the current fiscal year. The danger lies in the precedent this extravagance is setting.

Thanks to the MPs’ unrestrained demand for higher pay and allowances,  the country is already wrestling with having to pay huge sums of money to county representatives who went on strike and paralysed their respective governments until the Salaries and Renumeration Commission (SRC) met their demands.

Nothing left

Members of the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) are still demanding to be paid allowances to cover all the public service workers. This would bring the country’s economy to its knees.

At 70 per cent of the national budget, the country’s public salary bill means there is little left for development because operations and maintenance take most of what is left.

That means the country has to mortgage its future by borrowing to pay for the little development needed to keep the economy ticking.

Clearly, there is a need for a major national re-think. But where will it start and who will lead it? Only time will tell.

Let’s hope the two sides will demonstrate they care for Kenyans by ending their wrangling and getting on with the job for which they are paid.