KENYA MPS DESERVES TO EARN A BETTER SALARIES AND ALLOWANCES FOR A LIVING SO THAT THEY GIVE THE TAXPAYERS GOOD SERVICES AND PERFORMANCE.
Commentary By Leo Odera Omolo In KISUMU City.
MEMBERS of Kenyan parliament deserve to be paid adequately so that they could perform their duties diligently and avoid what kind of word which some people had coined in connection with the 10th parliament, which had depicted of legislator as the “MP for Hire.”
Our legislators are tasked wit heavy responsibilities, particularly those representing remote rural constituencies who on many occasions are being called by the village to use their personal car and vehicles as ambulances while assisting the sick.
Medical services in this country collapsed many years ago. Most health centers, which are located in the interior part of the country have no standing by ambulances, at time even mothers in labor seek MPS assistance and support so that they could be rushed to the nearby, but poorly equipped medical facilities.
Poorly paid MP cannot afford to shoulder all these responsibilities, therefore the proposed basic alary of USD 10,00O per month for an MP is very much reasonable. The government has the poor record of appointing numerous but useless commission of Inquiries or other commissions whose finding have no direct benefit to the taxpayer or added value, and whose members are known to have been minting million of shillings, but performing nothing.
Members of parliament are honorable people. We expect them to be living decently as the honorable people, not like papers who could not discharge their responsibilities and deliver the goods to the electorate. The adjustment of the MP’s salary and allowances upward should not be negotiable.
I must say here in emphatically clear terms that even those members of the civil societies who last week staged violent street demonstration outside parliament and took piglets and pigs to harass and antagonizes our Muslem brothers who are not even taxpayers.
But we are driven by the desire to be heard and to make things difficult or our elected legislators to intimidate them not to perform their duties efficiently and competently. They were merely petty mischievous people and political hirelings and goons.
The time is ripe for Kenyan of good will and intention to come forward and say “a big no” to political thuggery. Such moves if left unchecked could plunge Kenya into distasteful condition and political turmoil that could make life difficult and unbearable for our children.
Madame Sarah Serem should think twice and make sure that our MPs are paid adequately, though I also concur with those who opined saying the number has increased threefold, and could definitely overburden the treasury with heavy Wage Bill.
With the present tri-cameral parliamentary system, I have a feeling that the extra 47 women representatives in parliament is a luxury, though it is contained under a cause in the ne constitutional dispensation. Te 47 Counties are adequately represented and covered by the Senators.
Kenya, however, must accept that the new set of the constitution is a very expensive one and the government will have to go extra miles in search of funds to have all its clauses implemented fully. But we can afford it through dialogue and negotiations and not through the staging violence street demonstrations by mainly goons and job seekers.
Our MPs deserves good vehicles for their safe travelling, good houses while attending their duties in the City, security details.
It is also time for the government to tell members of the Provincial Administration pack up and go home, or reassign them elsewhere as it has become obvious that their continued present in the Counties is not in the interest of taxpayers.
They could be sabotaging the operations of the devolutions and undermining as well as undercutting the work of the governors and their regional assembly teams. The undercutting could be the source of insecurity in places like Bungoma, Busia and Trans-Nzoia and elsewhere. Sooner or later such insecurity would spread like bushfire to other peaceful areas. The PCs,D.Cs,,DOs were dismissed by the High Court and told that they have no role in the evolution system, but someone somewhere choose to ignore the court judgment. It could be a cartel within the defunct coalition government had special assignment for them during the March 14 general elections. However, the elections have come and gone. They should now be relieves of their duties
If the purpose of retaining the Provincial Administration was a secret weapon used in rigging the last general election, then their role is over, they should go home now.It is all duplication of work and responsibilities with the governor and their team safely installed.
Ends