Date:Tue, 25 Mar 2008 19:03:48 -0700 (PDT)
From:Elvis mageto

As far as I can remember, and my memory is not that bad, Kenyans have continued to suffer under the poor leadership of our elected officials and especially the MPs. Scandal after scandal has continued to dog each and every MP’s legacy, which concertedly have consigned Kenyans into perpetual poverty and misery.

If it is not inciting tribal militia into hating and butchering those who are perceived to be of a different ethnic group, then they are busy making bogus deals where public coffers are shamelessly wiped out for selfish reasons. If the zeal with which these cannibals go at stealing our money is equally harnessed and channeled towards improving the welfare of Kenyans, then all Kenyans would have been as rich as these robbers. We should not be talking about poverty in Kenya as at now – – we could have long been empowered to feed, shelter and educate our children with ease.

But now that lady luck has not knocked at our door, we must devise ways of insisting on the delivery of services from the very people we have elected to parliament. In any case, and by and large, they are the most well paid human beings among their peers – – not even the wealthiest nations on earth can afford the remuneration package our MPs have awarded themselves. It is a shame that employees can have the power to award themselves huge salaries despite the fact that their company is making losses, and indeed almost going under. Don’t we have good lawyers among the LSK fraternity who can and should take crooks to court and seek redress on behalf the Kenyan people? For one, no MP should be allowed to set the amount he/she wants to be paid. If all of us were allowed to decide upon our salaries, then no public company could be operational as at now. Two, those heavy packages they had awarded themselves should be stopped and a way be devised on how to recover those monies that have been given out to them. There must be a way – – check it out my learned friends in LSK.

In 1993, a very vocal and sensible Australian ambassador to Kenya had encouraged USUI graduates to be vocal and demanding of their respective MPs. He was criticized by every Tom and Dick because they saw this as an affront against their demagoguery. I have never in my life been so inspired and motivated by a speech as did my Australian friend. “Write them letters, call them, knock at their offices, and challenge them by all possible means”, said he. The MPs are our representatives and must deliver as per their job descriptions. Any rhetoric to mitigate the importance of effective leadership, efficiency and general responsiveness to constituent needs must be confronted and denounced by all Kenyans. We must demand without fear for what is duly ours and let us not act as if these MPs are doing us a favor.

The coalition is falling in place and the time is now to demand efficient management of our national resources. This is not the time for politicians to start rewarding each other with cabinet positions over the just concluded fiasco of an election. People have been displaced, maimed, and slaughtered at the instigation of our politicians. The ink is not even dry and here they are jostling for positions as if nothing of significance had happened. This is how cannibal our leaders have become – – they least care about you and me but want to use us to achieve their selfish ends. We should not let them do this to us. As the Australian said in that prophetic speech in 1993, we must write to them, call them, knock at their doors and shout and protest until our demands for efficient resources management is heard and adhered to. My friends, silence though useful in certain situations, rends credence to our leaders’ insatiable appetite for our national wealth, which they have continued to squander, embezzle, and steal while our own poor people are going hungry day in day out. The zeal with which supporters advanced the Raila and Kibaki agenda should be employed equally in this period as we demand for a lean and clean cabinet. Let all and sundry show their patriotic stances by demanding that two top coalition partners be sensitive to our needs and allocate ministries in such a manner that our national resources would be of profound use to us all.

And as I have said before, we must start right now to demand for a lean and clean cabinet. The idea of having even 34 ministries is not based on sound economic judgment but rather it is based on fuzzy statistics whose only and express purpose is to satiate political goons. Raila must not accept the bloating of the cabinet to 44 but should instead demand that that number be reduced to less than twenty. Ministries should be combined to save us money and in its place have strong-willed and capable civil servants to run the management of departments as it is done in the USA. The work of the ministers should be to oversee the smooth running of those agencies that are under that ministry. The only way we are going to move forward is by using wisely those resources that are in hands. And definitely, bloating the cabinet is not a viable option.

The Kenyan government is going to be run by an astute and pragmatic leader in cohorts with an economist. If the two traits cannot give the Kenyan people the best of leadership that we have thus far yearned for then fate has it that we shall always be poor and wanting. Raila and Kibaki must resist the temptation of being swayed by hardliners whose relevance hinges upon their fragile egos and selfish interests. Rather we implore that the two leaders show leadership yet again and appoint only those who are ready and willing to serve Kenyans efficiently and without fear or favor. If the two are not going to listen to us, then we must denounce them and protest until they listen to us. This is democracy in action.

And yes we must demand that our MPs return the funds that they fraudulently awarded themselves as sitting allowances. These thieves are paid more than enough and yet they create loop holes every single minute in order to be able to steal from us. This happens when Ringera and his lieutenants are sleeping on job and yet he is being astronomically paid by Kenyans in order to give unnecessary and uncalled for press releases. We want action not press releases Mr. Ringera!

Subject:Wasting Our Resources: Politicians must come out clean