We have no business electing political leaders who need education on basics

By Atieno Ndomo

Kangundo MP Johnstone Muthama generated quite a furore for questioning the value of a workshop convened by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) "to sensitise MPs" on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

No less than the House Speaker, ODM Chief Whip Jakoyo Midiwo, and representatives of the GCAP coalition admonished the legislator for suggesting that convening a multi-million shilling workshop for MPs was a waste of money.

Never mind the fact that there are abundant alternative resources on MDGs, including the exhaustive MDG Monitor, a free to access online information resource designed by various United Nations agencies.

The MDG Monitor provides global and country level information on progress made with regard to the MDGs. But perhaps the real tragedy is that we have elected representatives who are not technology savvy.

But was Muthama – one of the few MPs who pay the requisite taxes on their earnings and allowances as MP – really off the mark? As we face exceptionally dire economic circumstances, is it worthwhile to expend such vast resources to "educate MPs on the MDGs"? Our MPs are notorious for sponsored lavish workshops at choice venues. It is common knowledge that besides the nature of venue, the amount of per diems paid mostly determines the attendance rate.

The MDGs were a result of the adoption of the Millennium Declaration on sustainable development during the UN Summit in 2000. They are the globally agreed targets for attaining development in the world’s poorer nations by the year 2015.

The eight goals cover wide ranging issues, including reducing the incidence of abject poverty and hunger; attaining universal primary education; supporting gender equality and women’s empowerment; improving maternal health; reducing child mortality; combating HIV/Aids, TB, malaria and other diseases; enhancing environmental sustainability; and forging a global partnership for development.

Every five years, the UN reviews performance against these targets and unsurprisingly, the verdict of these audits consistently reveal an especially dismal performance by African countries. Unsurprising because without the requisite financial investments to ensure implementation, it is hardly possible to get the desired results. International and national action to advance the MDGs is wanting. Characteristically, aid and other pledges from the developed nations ranging from the earmarking of 0.7 per cent of GDP as Overseas Development Assistance to the commitments for deeper and sustainable multilateral debt relief and more fundamental restructuring of global trade remain unattained.

Kenya is not on course to meet most of the goals and this is borne out by the worsening social indicators.

Based on Government progress reports submitted to the UN and information from the UNDP’s Human Development Reports, Kenya is off track as far as reducing extreme poverty and eradicating hunger is concerned. It is suggested that with concerted effort and meaningful changes, the country could realise better outcomes in enhancing maternal and child health; combating malaria, HIV/Aids and other diseases; promoting gender equality; and enhancing environmental sustainability.

The country only seems to have fared well with regard to universal primary education – although there are valid concerns the prevailing economic downturn and waning political will could reverse this achievement.

So would a mere sensitisation workshop for Members of Parliament do the trick? The same parliamentarians who with arrogant impunity refuse to pay all due taxes; who mismanage development resources allocated through various local level funds, including the Constituency Development Fund, and who compromise their scrutiny and oversight role in favour of cheap politicking thus failing to censure actions that lead to the plunder of public resources.

Do the MPs not represent constituents who starve and lack access to the very basic essentials of life, caught in a vicious cycle of poverty and want? And all this because of a failure to legislate the recognition, respect, and fulfilment of the basic rights of all Kenyans and to effectively represent the priorities of their constituents.

Critical voices have long chastised the MDGs for lacking novelty, merely re-echoing the well-known objectives of development. Kenya has excelled in shifting goal posts on development targets. Remember the well-quoted quest "to eradicate poverty, ignorance and disease"; the pledge to provide universal access to clean water by 2000; the list of lofty unmet ideals could go on. The reality on the other hand could not be grimmer.

In the end, it boils down to the fact that the paralysis in our governance lies at the heart of our country’s development dilemma. A highly centralised system has yielded entrenched inequities. There are insufficient checks and balances between the different arms of Government with the legislative and judicial arms typically stifled by the overwhelming powers of the Executive branch of Government. Without evolving viable governance alternatives, the MDGs will remain a mirage.

—The writer ([email protected]) is a Social and Economic Policy Analyst.