“Numbers don’t lie.” To all concerned voters in this country, please help me fill out the missing numbers for salary and expenses for the long-awaited forty Cabinet posts.

* 40 Ministers each earning Sh.1.087 million @ month = Sh.43.48 mil @ year
* 40 Assistant Min. 987,500 @ month 39.5 mil @ year
* 40 PS? 423,280 @ month 16.9 mil @ year
** PM ?????? ?????
** DPM ????? ????
** DPM ????? ????
** VP 1.1 mill 13.2
** President ????? ????

OTHER KNOWN EXPENSES:

3 vehicles per Minister = 120 vehicles
1 vehicle per Assit. Min = 40 vehicles
3- 12 body guard per Minister = ????????

Note: The salaries and expenses for the remaining 130 MPs who don’t hold any Cabinet post in this administration are NOT included in the above figures. You must also remember that at the end of this current five-year term, the same forty-plus Cabinet ministers will be entitled to lumpsum severance payments and monthly pension payments for life. By creating forty Cabinet posts, the long-term payment to these MPs will go beyond the grand coalition government.

Before Kenyans can celebrate the appointment of these cabinet ministers, they should ask themselves the following questions: Where will the country get this money? Where will the money for economic infrastructure come from? Where will the money to resettle displaced people come from? Will public service delivery systems improve because of the 80 cabinet
posts, or Will donors pay for the salaries of these Cabinet ministers or pay for economic development projects?

The Cabinet selection politics are over. The ruling class has won by awarding themselves the spoils from the general election of 2007. Out of this election the country got internal refugees, death, a Prime Minister’s office and now forty Cabinet ministers. What more can we ask of leaders? Maybe civic groups, civil society organizations and public voters should ask these Cabinet Ministers to take a pay cut from these salaries to help displaced persons, health care services and other economic projects that the country needs most in the aftermath of this election. What if these MPs forgo their salary for one month and give this money to resettle the displaced people in Kenya? This can be a good example of truly lending a hand to the needy of our country. Instead it will not be too long before we see Kenya’s government begging for aid from foreign governments while politicians rake in millions of shillings from the treasury and their fellow Kenyans die in refugee camps.

Yes, PNU, ODM and Tribal leaders will be bragging about the forty-plus Cabinet ministries. Who is the Minister for a given ministry? Which party got the key ministries? Which tribe got the most ministries? Which region got the most ministries and most of all Who won and Who lost in the cabinet sweepstakes?! What political leaders and the public will NOT realize is that by creating these bloated cabinet posts they have just mortgaged the future of this country into perpetual debt. If anybody in this country thinks or expects improvement of public services from the expanded cabinet ministries, I have a bridge to sell you. I urge Kenyan
people, after knowing what the MPs are earning, to ask them if they can give some money back to help poor people in their villages who will never earn a penny in their lives. Election and Cabinet selection politics are over, the public should now ask for a pay cut from our MPs
if they truly care for this country or for their personal interests!

Dan M. Orao
Michigan, USA