Of polls date, greed and helpless public

A story is told of this clever chap who on his way home, came face to face with a menacing leopard. The leopard pounced on Mr Kiplagat. He dodged and grabbed its tail. For hours he held onto the tail, swinging it in circles as the beast tried to bite him.

When he was almost giving up, dizzy and fatigued, his friend, Mr Okello, passed by and from a safe distance, asked him how he could help.

Mr Kiplagat asked Mr Okello to come and hold the animal so he could get a stick to kill it. Mr Okello swallowed the bait; he switched his place of safety with Mr Kiplagat who, once out of danger, told Mr Okello to do as he wanted but, for him, he was gone.

Mr Kiplagat's deep sense of ingratitude, selfishness and readiness to sacrifice a friend who offered to get into the danger zone so as to get him to safety aside, one thing we cannot afford to do is accuse Mr Okello of being naïve.

Surely, the man, as Mr Kalonzo Musyoka likes to say, "accepted to lay his life for a brother". So it could as well be that Mr Okello, his good intentions aside, was later devoured by the leopard, but the folklore ends there.

For purposes of our weekly encounter, let us just say there are too many Kiplagats around; guys ready to lock us up in the den of lions, so long as they are free. Today, let us pause and consider the raging debate by Members of Parliament on the self-seeking Bill whose objective is only one; to move the election date from August as stipulated in the Constitution, to December, then reap the fruits of an extended term.

The argument could be that the 2010 Constitution would demand that this particular amendment falls within the realm of a national referendum. MPs would argue against this but seek to hack through the maze of constitutional safeguards crafted to mitigate between the interests of the citizens as well as those of the three arms of government to ensure mutuality and order.

There is no better case where this has manifested itself than when it comes to fights for salary increases. As always, here, there is no Government or Opposition, women or men! In fact, the philosophy of Mr Kiplagat applies. There are three outcomes from the bill currently before the House, which incidentally originated from an Orange Democratic Movement MP, David Ochieng.

See, his party leader, Raila Odinga, says the bill does not have the blessings of the party, but then do the MPs themselves have a reason to oppose it? Of course not. ODM MPs, just like their Jubilee counterparts, are ecstatic because, apart from two other implications with national dimensions, their own terms would in effect be extended and their date with the electorate postponed for as long.

So if the election date moves to December, friends, MPs would have four or so more months to earn a salary and the bruising electioneering period that almost always claims the careers of at least two-thirds of them, is postponed.

This confluence of the rivers of greed from the heart of Jubilee and Opposition drowns any grain of principle they purport to hold, with the victor being the stomach and the demons of self-gratification.

Secondly, the Opposition's, or at least the mover's reasoning was that this Bill was necessary because August was inappropriate because of the budget and school cycles and the harvesting season, and December was traditionally the holiday and election month.

What the Opposition doesn't tell you is that in November 2017, the term of the current team of electoral body would end and they expect that if moved to December, then they know this would mean the next election would be conducted by a new team.

However, for Jubilee, there are two reasons this would be exciting; first it would mean President Uhuru Kenyatta's term would be extended far beyond the period where ideally a successor would take over, assuming he loses the seat.

But that is all that seems to depress the Opposition mandarins. Because whereas they know they can't raise the two-thirds majority to effect the change, they will need Jubilee's numerical tyranny to push the term of MPs.

Now for Jubilee, as we are told, IEBC's term isn't an issue because they are working on ways to also have its term pushed forward. So you see, in this game, I scratch your back you scratch mine. Biologists would say, it is a symbiotic relationship where mutual interests bring amity among 'enemies'.

That is how shameless and 'principled' our leaders are and because this is a 'case' without a complainant in the Houses, then you can take this to the bank; the date will change, but for reasons other than those stated.