The same current constitution does not provide any guidelines on how big the cabinet should be. And so, while helping draft this new constitution that is yet to be taken to the referendum, the CoE identified the potential abuse of power by the cabinet’s appointing authority and thus included a clause that cushions the nation against such potential abuse when appointing members of the cabinet. Should this new constitution be adopted after the referendum, according to the clause, the president will not have a cabinet larger than 24 and less than 15 officials. That was fantastic and visionary.

However, while the MPs’ remuneration has been an issue bothering Kenyans and debated by all, the very MPs have not been ’sufficiently philanthropic’ to stop awarding themselves inflated untaxed benefits despite our convulsing economy. The new constitution is silent about this life long struggle for our economy and I think the same approach should have been adopted, like I had mentioned in my comments to the CoE during the time they were collecting and collating views from the public. But this has been overlooked either deliberately by design or otherwise incompetently while jeopardizing our future parliamentary remuneration trends to the detriment of the general Kenyan economy.

Someone may argue that the Salaries & Remuneration Commission will deal with that but such a commission will have to need some checks and balances as regards its operational threshold. As it is now, this commission has been given a signed blank cheque at the expense of the tax payer. The same reasoning that was invoked while addressing the size of the cabinet should have guided the CoE to provide the limits. And in this case, I have suggested, like it is done elsewhere like in the UK, Canada, South Africa, New Zealand, to tie the representatives’ income, both for the August House and the devolved governments’ to the minimum wage in the country. Whenever they raise their salaries or the relevant commission does so, the minimum wage earners must also receive a proportional increase as well. After all, inflation affects every Kenyan across the board.

Others might argue that we can just pass this constitution and then amend it later, but we will need the MPs to cause the amendments to happen yet none of them will be willing to scale down or institute any controls on their income, going by the 10 parliaments’ attitude towards their income. This is thus, the common man’s only time and moment to do so. But we cannot achieve this by voting the document down; it will be cost prohibitive to do so. That is why I am seeking a court injunction for the IIEC to put on hold their preparation for the referendum and a court order directing the CoE to get back to work and capture that clause before subjecting the document to the referendum.

This is a contest between patriotism and political correctness and if it is not addressed, we will effectively continue digging the same hole. Only deeper. I know I will never earn minimum wage in Kenya but I choose integrity and thus with patriotism urge you and the rest of your networks to pay attention to this phenomenon.

Thanks a lot and as you ponder on this, I pray that God clears your mind of any impediment to the truth and proven patriotism in defense of Kenya ’s future generations.

Moses Marango
Bumula Constituency

Our laws regarding dealing with looters of public funds are too lenient making it almost laughable since they are akin to a slap on the wrist. The moment the punishment fits the crime is when all these shameful and shameless scandals involving greedy people dipping their grubby hands into the collective public pot will cease.

Let us push to have the statute books changed so that one stops to think before stealing public funds entrusted to them. Make an example of a few and the wanton looting will stop with some even committing suicide (like in China) to avoid prosecution and the subsequent agony through long jail sentences.

http://kikezidane.blogspot.com/2010/03/zidane-agglomeration-dribble-attackers.html