Kenya: Why MPs Must be Shown the Door

Published on 25th November 2011

Kenyan civil society protest against against corrupt MPs.

Going by the 10th Parliament’s failure to tackle matters of national interest with the gravity such matters call for, its dismal performance especially on bills that would ensure smooth implementation of the Katiba and their perennial penchant for fleecing Kenyans through adding to their pecks, is it any wonder that polls indicate more than half will not make it back to Parliament?

In my sojourns with Kenyans of all walks of life, I usually ask the inevitable question to those I interact with; will you re-elect your Parliamentarian? The quick and crisp answer is NO; from a good over 75% of those I have asked this question.

The reasons are as simple we all can guess. Kenyans are generally angry with this greedy lot, from their refusal to pay taxes like any other Kenyan and their lust for money. Not a couple of months pass by before some matter to do with MP's pecks comes to the fore. These leeches never sacrifice for anything even when patriotism calls for the same.

Right now, our country is at war and resources are channelled towards securing our borders and our economy; seriously threatened by external aggressors.

Meanwhile, MPs are scheming how to take home millions each should elections be held in August as scheduled and as envisaged by the Katiba, one which they campaigned for aggressively. In the meantime as well, they are contemplating increasing their home ownership loans at a time when other Kenyans have to contend with hard economic times.

Our leaders, from Ministers to Parliamentarians have become an insensitive lot, greedy and so arrogant that the reality of what the ordinary mwananchi goes through is remote stuff to most of them, regular news items!!

Against this backdrop, we, as a country must begin the onerous task of identifying credible, visionary and selfless leaders from without this selfish lot, a lot that has proved time and again that any slight opportunity accorded them to make good their leadership skills has gone down into selfish motives.

It will be a sad day indeed come next year, with the same charlatans and miscreants in office lording it over us and we crying ‘we wish we knew’ when we have had a good 5 years to assess their characters, no less than the pigs in Animal Farm.

Armed with this perspective, it is important that we begin interrogating the new crop that is throwing hats into the ring. As much as this development is encouraging, we should look for leaders with practical solutions to problems. For instance, I would want to see aspirants who have done a thorough analysis of the needs of the regions they wish to represent, come up with a blueprint of priorities and a practical budget based on the prevailing economic realities on how to mitigate the situations they have identified.

This should include practicalities such as which roads in a constituency need urgent attention, the justifications, economic or otherwise, the costs, the process coupled with timelines for achieving the same. What projects will lead to rapid job creation? The opportunities lie all over, what needs to be done is a little thinking and mobilizing the residents into that thinking.

In Nyanza for instance, I have been wondering why MPs have never initiated much of irrigation using Lake Victoria waters to enhance food production? With CDF at their disposal, a good number could have found ready employment for youth through farming, and why do Nyanza residents contend with poor prices of fish when all is needed is refrigeration facilities that cuts out desperation caused by the fear of fish going bad the same day? Why would stocks even dwindle when fish farming is a viable option around the Lake?

It would be a great idea to begin focusing and helping reform minded Kenyans build credible campaign strategies. It is our ability to put into leadership credible people that will unyoke us from the shackles of poverty. We know that we want good leadership, this we can scout for, we also know that the 10th Parliament is comprised of the leadership we do not want. We must find the total opposites of these characters.

By Otieno Sungu.
Vugu Vugu Mashinani.


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