Can Kenya really afford 60 more MPs?

By Roseleen Nzioka

Members of Parliament are pushing for the review of constituency boundaries with the aim of adding at least 60 more MPs. This will cost Kenyan taxpayers an extra Sh48 million a month on salaries alone. An MP earns Sh800,000 a month!

Among other expenses would be office space and personnel. Nearly half the MPs have backed the proposal to increase the number of constituencies from 210 to 270. No doubt the reasons given for the need for more MPs sound reasonable. What with some constituencies being so expansive that some voters literally have no access to their MPs and vice versa.

The whole idea of bringing services closer to the people is also what has led to the creation of new districts both in the Moi and Kibaki regimes. However, it is debatable whether it is better to make the existing government services more effective and efficient rather than multiply more of the same inefficiency that is usually associated with government services to wananchi.

A casual chat with village folk in some remote part of Ukambani recently was a revelation to me in regard to government services to its citizens. Some of the folks I spoke to said they would rather have a hospital that is 20 kilometres away and that is adequately staffed with doctors and nurses and medicines rather than have rural dispensaries scattered around them that hardly have medical personnel and drugs. Why? Because they get to the dispensaries and then they get referred to the district hospitals even for the most minor illnesses.

It may seem simplistic but in the same vein I believe it would be fair to conclude that adding more constituencies in the country would theoretically be construed as a fair way of achieving proportional representation in Parliament. That is theoretically. I will play the devil’s advocate here and say that realistically, we as taxpayers are about to fork out millions of shillings to create room for more of the same shoddy representation we get from our MPs. Do we need more MPs or do we need MPs who are more efficient?

Can’t we instead use that Sh48 million per month to equip our existing hospitals and schools with medical personnel and teachers? Build more all-weather roads? And yes, bring services closer to the people?

The other beef I have with MPs is that they work for a few hours in the August House. Having been a Parliamentary reporter in the 1990s, I observed that an MP works an average three days a week (that is Tuesday for half day, Wednesday is full day and Thursday is another half day) totaling 16 hours a WEEK! And that is for those MPs who bother to at least make an appearance in the chamber and contribute to debates on motions, bills and other business of the House. Who would not want to work a 16-hour WEEK and earn a cool Sh800,000? Can Kenya really afford this?