A Nation On The Ledge !

The daunting task that we countenance as a nation is how to cut down our recurrent expenditure. As we speak the amount of money taxpayers pump into our national coffers, half of that sum is used to pay salaries, our new constitution with the zeal to curb this vice put in place the salaries commission with the mandate to regulate public servants monthly income, however it appears that the same constitution created a greater evil with a blotted National Assembly consisting of 348 parliamentarian this is up from the initial about 250 , there also exists a senate consisting about 67 members which never existed before, we now have Governors’ and their deputies whose number escalates to a whopping 94 members let’s not overlook the positions of special needs and marginalized persons in our arithmetic’s. We applaud the makers of the constitution for their good intentions to unvaryingly accommodate our varied natures but to the extent of making it insurmountable then it becomes a little overambitious.

Maybe this is coming out very clearly, we actually condemned our previous public servants for taking home very hefty paycheck only to substitute them with double the number who are abhorrently underpaid, trust me we have put ourselves in an impasse that we have no idea of how to deal with. These are hungry hyenas with an insatiable appetite to devour anything within their grasp. In essence we have created diminutive mercenaries in parliament who will do anything to have that meager salary as they see it grow three fold. To demonstrate the veracity of this issue look at the current on goings in parliament the famous tyranny of numbers has already started showing its claws, the election of the speaker in both houses has been informed by party affiliations first then other things follow later on, this people have at the behest of their own started rewarding political sycophancy proper qualifications of the candidate notwithstanding, which in my view could be dangerous equally important , the operations of parliament may be informed by the two factions.

The drafters of the constitution may have made a gross miscalculation, look here previously we had a minister who doubled up as a member of parliament who would be paid a lump sum salary for the two roles all together except now in the wisdom or lack of it, the drafters of the constitution deemed it fit to separate the two roles and give it to an autonomous expert who would not be a member of parliament which I thought was brilliant for the reason that this is a role that could be wholly handled by the permanent secretary, another dint of brilliance was in the reduction of the number of ministries by half because I thought the decision of president Kibaki to simply concoct up ministries was the peak of capriciousness, then I got the shock of my life when the drafters decided to put an additional baggage to the taxpayers through other officers known as the secretary to the cabinet and the principal secretary who until recently I did not know of their perceived roles , but from a witty reading I discerned that the principal secretary would be like the head of the civil service while the secretary to the cabinet will be responsible for creating the cabinet calendar whatever that even means. I mean previously the head of the civil service used to double up that role with the permanent secretary of some ministry but again the drafters thought they should create more jobs by duplicating roles, my question therefore what was the main reason for scaling down cabinet positions only to create mini-positions within the same cabinet, it therefore becomes very defeatist.

 

To me that’s the problem of just lifting provisions from other jurisdiction without determining their functionality. The Republic of South Africa is well capable of handling such a structure because their economy can sustain it sadly I can’t say the same for us .Now we have to deal with a blotted government which we cannot even pay sufficiently just in the name of creating equal opportunities for all. The next incentive by the government will be to look for other areas to tax meanwhile we will be digging deeper into our pockets to be able to sustain our growing demands.

 

That issue aside, by dint of article 153(3) the drafters took away the only link the executive had to parliament by making cabinet secretaries not to be members of parliament the issue arises of how the cabinet will be handling its business which requires parliamentary approval such as moving the house to pass bills? As of now the financially depressed parliamentarians who have spent fortunes to be in parliament, who do not have the same privileges as the outgoing parliament for instance instead of being given grants to buy cars now it has become a loan payable in five years, the grant for buying a house has been limited to 20 million shillings, the committees can only sit four times in a month with 5000 per sitting, they are now required to pay taxes on their allowances of 30% you can do them mathematics. These members are like caged animals that will do anything to rescue themselves from this inopportune situation no matter the cost.

 

To reconcile what I was referring earlier on the issue of the cabinet quandary, since now only a parliamentarian can move the house to debate a bill either through a private motion or a public motion then it becomes imperative that the executive looks for a member to move it who will not hesitate to demand for an incentive to do so, now that’s the easy part when the bill sails to the committee stage of parliament here we have a whole committee of parliamentarian led by a chairman who would not even look at the bill if no incentive is given to all its member otherwise the bill would be stuck there. I do not raise this issue as an alarmist nor am I predicting hell and brimstones but there is a practicable example of Liberia where poorly paid parliamentarians held the president at ransom until he paid all the members some form of stipend before they could pass a crucial motion. Now we begin to realize that this sentiments have moved out of the periphery of being petty to somehow weighty issues that we have to grapple with and somehow as I was typing this I got so engrossed that I missed the ruling on by the supreme court anyway they say we are in a digital age, thank God now we have a president who should get straight to work.

 

Then we come to another level of government called the county government where we also have issues. Basically here we have created a center of power that is unimaginable, we have created small presidents with unfettered powers at the county level however the area of concern is with the county assembly consisting of county representatives, this being a relatively new thing to the elected officials who have been used to violent meeting initially, however now they have to be called to order by a speaker!! I had no idea that we had speakers for this assemblies and I won’t pretend to know because the constitution has no place for them, I stand corrected on this issue, is there a reason the constitution failed to mention their existence and by extension the salaries commission? Because when I was reviewing the new salary scale I only saw that of the speaker of the national assembly and senate speaker. Is there a reason why the constitution makers failed to mention this or did they not anticipate their existence? Why would you give the salaries for the students and forget the existence of the purported prefect? Is there a provision in the county government act stating their existence and if so who pays them because clearly they are not anticipated by the salaries commission? These are just a few questions assailing my entangled mind read as I haven’t taken time to read the devolved government legislation therefore I wouldn’t hold it against anyone who finds my naivety on this issue laughable but again that’s just my skewed perception of the subject we just have adopt the wait and see approach... signing out!!!!