Proposed Constitution may tame MPs' greed

Kenyan MPs have now come out openly as the greediest people in the country. Putting up their salaries to well over a million shillings each every month, when there are millions who don’t know where their next meal will come from and thousands still living in ramshackle tents as IDPs, has made them lose the little respect they had among the people. The ruthless step they took to feather their own nests is a very cunning move to put something by for the rainy day which they know will come soon when the Proposed Constitution is accepted by the people of Kenya and becomes the country’s supreme law.

The acquisitive step taken by the MPs has also proved that the majority of them are what has proverbially come to be known as political watermelons which are green on the outside and very red in the inside. The 130 of them claimed to be very green at the joint PNU-ODM Parliamentary Group meeting chaired by Raila Odinga and Mwai Kibaki. But the cat almost came out of the bag when they demanded to be paid five million shillings each in order to popularize the Proposed Constitution in their constituencies.

MPs have also realized that green or red they will have very little influence in the forthcoming referendum on which people have already made up their minds. The passing of the Proposed Constitution is what Raila Odinga would describe as a tsunami or a tidal wave which will sweep across the whole country into a new dawn of democratic and transparent governance in Kenya. The question now is not whether or not Kenyans will accept the Proposed Constitution, but it is with what majority.

Paradoxically, the insatiable gluttony exhibited by Kenya’s most dishonorable legislators has only strengthened the people’s determination to turnout in large numbers and pass the Proposed Constitution , which they know is their only saviour in this bloodless war between the haves and the have-nots. Unlike the referendum of 2005 when people almost blindly followed the guidance of their political leaders, this referendum is by and large based on considerably more knowledge of the content of the document which, when all is said and done, originates from the people’s own contribution.

The Proposed Constitution really scares the current breed of Parliamentarians who invest in their parliamentary seats to milk the country dry through corruption, tribalism and nepotism. The document that is about to become the supreme law in Kenya closes all doors to what attracts politicians to Parliament. In future getting elected to the legislature will not mean an automatic acquisition of stolen wealth cornucopia. The door to that wealth normally leads to cabinet positions which in future will only be occupied by competent technocrats of proven clean record.

MPs are also scared stiff of the reorganization of political parties recommended by the Proposed Constitution. In future political parties will be national and not tribal. They will be required to exercise internal democracies and not be used by the rich as stepping stones to political power. The dirty plans of using political parties to deny young competent and popular leaders nomination tickets will soon be a thing of the past, for the Proposed Constitution will allow independent candidates to contest all political offices.

The very description of a leader in the Proposed Constitution would frighten the current Kenyan MPs. It requires high standards of integrity and respect for the people which the Parliamentarians seem to have none. According to Article 73(1) (a) (iii) of the Proposed Constitution on responsibility of leadership, those who will be holding important public offices in future will be expected to bring honour to the nation and dignity to the office.

MPs in Kenya have been responsible for bringing a lot of dishonour to the nation by constantly being absent from the legislature despite the high salaries they get for their jobs. The act they took of putting up their salaries in the most unreasonable manner has only helped to highlight the indignity of the entire House.

The one part of the Proposed Constitution which makes MPs spend sleepless nights and hide behind watermelons is Article 104 which gives the people the powers to recall their Member of Parliament they are dissatisfied with. If that Article was operationalised today all the MPs would have been recalled by the wananchi for being absolutely reckless in demanding such high salaries from the taxpayers that Kenya today is a laughing stalk in many parts of the world.

The irony of the whole episode is that no sooner will our MPs open up fat banking accounts obtained from the people’s sweat, than they will be making regular trips to the Western world to beg for some money to keep the Government from collapsing. Meanwhile there is no money in the country to pay school teachers whose contribution to this nation is of greater importance than that of the MPs.

One other aspect of the Proposed Constitution that makes MPs shake in their boots is the establishment of Counties which will be the governments very close to the people. Developments of many areas where the MPs come from are currently done through the Constituency Development Funds, which have turned the MPs into demigods in their home areas. CDFs have also been a cause of a lot of corruption.

With the establishment of offices of Governors, MPs’ status in the rural areas may be pushed to the peripheral level with limelight shining more on Governors. This predicament has been responsible for the increasing number of watermelons in the legislature. Fortunately the sin they have just committed will make the people not take them seriously when they call for “YES” or “NO” votes in their constituencies.

Between now and 4th of August the most important people as far as the referendum is concerned will be members of the CoE who will be conducting civic education. Other members of the civil society doing the same are likely to be taken more seriously by the people than the politicians from both the Red and the Green camps.

Wherever they go MPs will not be able to talk about their salaries yet the people will be thinking about nothing else but the manner in which the politicians have been milking them all the time. Without knowing it, the politicians have boosted the popularity of the Proposed Constitution and made certain that the “YES” team wins with a landslide victory. The people know that that is the only way to put a stop to the MPs’ shameless gluttony.