Uhuru’s car directive angers Minister

Uhuru's car directive has angered many Ministers. They don't want to give up their big limousines to fulfill Kenyatta’s budget proposals. Big cars are the country’s status symbols. The bigger one’s car is the more respected he becomes. It does not matter how the big cars are purchased. They could belong to thieves or notorious smugglers. The moment they are seen in villages or estates where the poorest people live, they become one of the most important qualifications to get elected to Parliament.

This rule is obeyed by everyone including Prime Minister Raila Odinga who was among the fist Kenyans to import the American Hammar to use as a campaign instrument in the last elections. Because of that car he was nicknamed Nyundo or hammer throughout the campaign. Hundreds of other politicians, seeking to gain Raila’s popularity, emulated him. Now everyone wants a Hammar or something even bigger.

If Uhuru insists on withdrawing the big cars from ministers, assistant ministers and permanent secretaries, it will not be surprising if a suggestion is soon made to sell the big cars at a throwaway price to the Ministers and other top civil servants and let them continue claiming mileage as they use the same cars which will then be their own personal private cars. Such a scenario will not be farfetched because they say they deserve payment for the use of private cars while on official duties. After all MPs claim mileage every time they visit their constituencies.

Kenyan Parliamentarians do not get elected to be servants of the people; they go to the August House to seek power and privileges accompanied by pomp and pageantry. Looking at the car park used by MPs in Parliament can be an extremely nauseating experience. Legislators compete on size and quality of cars they drive. Listening to their drivers debating on whose is the most expensive is like hearing kindergarten children arguing about the beauty of their toys. Yet Uhuru’s proposal is a serious matter and could benefit the country if it was given the seriousness it deserves by our leaders. And Uhuru should not have stopped at the car level. He should have taken a bolder stand and suggest the reduction of the many fictitious Ministries that impoverish the people of Kenya on a daily basis.

Obviously Uhuru could not be expected to take this stand alone. But then they say Kenya’s is collective Government or those in Government have a collective responsibility. Thus Uhuru’s Budget should have been collectively planned with the involvement of the two principals who should have jointly announced a cabinet reshuffle to reduce the number of Ministries soon after the Budget speech. If that happened then Kenyans would truly have believed the seriousness of reducing high Government expenditures.

Today every mwananchi knows the uselessness of a number of Ministries. Top on the list of the worthless ones is the Ministry of Nairobi Metropolitan Development. No matter how highfalutin the language to justify its existence becomes, it will still remain useless and a waste of public funds. Everything this Ministry is purported to do can be done by the Ministry of Local Governments and Uhuru should have had the courage to tell Raila and Kibaki that simple truth. Then, and only then, would he have deserved the praise he is getting now from the Parliamentarians.

The second useless Ministry is that of Regional Development Authorities whose work could also be done by the Ministry of Local Governments. The Government must not continue to cheat the wananchi that this fictitious Ministry is doing anything to the people. If there is any development that can take place in various regions of the country then it should emanate from the people who understand their own problems better than those sitting in Nairobi pretending to initiate development in the regions.

Uhuru should also have had the courage to suggest to the Principals that there is no need to have both the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources and the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife. With the existence of these two Ministries simultaneously, one of them must be fictitious because, for all practical purposes, forestry and wildlife are part and parcel of natural resources. There is no need to pretend that the two perform different duties for political expediency.

The Ministry of Agriculture and that of Livestock Development are an obvious duplication and Uhuru should have joined them. The Ministry of Development of Northern Kenya and Other Arid Lands is the most hopeless public relations exercise that is definitely going to boomerang since the Ministry only exists on paper and is not even worth that paper it is written on. The Ministry was created to appease the increasing number of vocal anti Government Somalis who seem to be influenced by the dreaded Muslim fundamentalism. The only meaningful way of introducing development in the northern part of Kenya is to establish functioning Ministries that are both powerful and meaningful. Uhuru would have been a real hero if he pointed out that anomaly.

The Ministry of Special Programmes is as mysterious as the special programmes themselves. The Ministry is as fictitious as that of Gender and Children’s Affairs because every part of development in Kenya should include men, women and children and this should be a countrywide policy matter and not an issue of a Ministry created to silence vocal politicians. The creation of two ministries performing similar duties is proving to be an extremely expensive joke to the people. The classic example is that of the existence of the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation as well as that of Medical Services. Wananchi would have forever been grateful to Uhuru if he took serious steps to join the two.

A lot of Money would also have been saved if the Ministry of Education would have been joined with that of Higher Education Science and Technology. The two actually do the same job and Uhuru’s frugality would have been more conspicuous if he joined the two. The move to cut down the number of Ministries, if it was backed by Raila and Kibaki, would also have made the coalition Government appear more serious in its endeavor to serve the people. Today everyone knows the main purpose of this Government is to create jobs for the most powerful personalities in ODM, ODM-K and PNU. Time has probably come to establish permanent Ministries that will remain unchanged for a long time.

Posted by I am a at 2:54 AM