Just a few months after the conclusion of this year’s election that saw the election of a new crop of leaders to parliament, the newly elected members are onto their first order of business; salary increment. In the new leadership capacity, the newly elect including members of the senate such as Tabitha Karanja of Nakuru have spearheaded the push for more allowances for members of parliament with their push pegged onto the high cost of living and inflation as well as the global fuel prices crisis therefore, demanding an increase to reflect an adequate adjustment with regards to the high cost of living in Kenya.
The same members of parliament will be slow to act in the interest of the citizenry in cautioning the electorate from the high cost of living that has overwhelmed Kenyan citizen across the country regardless of job cadre or employment status. The essence of have elected leaders is to have better representation of our interests in parliament as the citizenry, but the only interests being represented are the selfish personal interests of the greedy parliamentarians.
When the COTU secretary general rallies his support behind the push for more salaries by parliamentarians, this is also utter betrayal because he is looking to endear himself to the members of the legislature perhaps for future favors. He might argue that it is his mandate through COTU to fight for the rights of Kenyan workers, but why agitate for better pay for the MPS only?
In his weak argument, Francis Atwoli made the assertion that members of parliament need a salary increase because a lot of people depend on their salaries, probably for handouts and that when the constituents are having problems they run to their elected MPS. First and foremost, that is the wrong kind of an approach to the problem. If at all a proper conducive economic environment and opportunities such as legislation and infrastructure is provided, the level of reliance would be minimized.
The recent declaration of the CDF being unconstitutional and nullified is the reason some MPS are worried and quite frantic because in the former regimes some of the MPS were nor held accountable for the misuse of the CDF with which they used to push their political agenda ahead rather than for the constituency development which was the agenda at the inception of the CDF agenda.
Another recent development is the transfer of financial autonomy to the police where the accounting and control of budget is now transferred to the office of the Inspector General of police rather than the cabinet secretary interior which was tied to the office of the presidency. This financial autonomy is not well handled will also eventually lead to more police demanding more remuneration and it will be all out breakdown of the national security system a bigger threat than the tantrum by the MPs who have nothing but selfish personal interests.
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