Kenyan Members of parliament shall go down the annals of History as the greediest leaders we have ever had. The Mps who have always been divided on political affiliation and tribe unanimously agreed to increase their salary on Tuesday which is against the Legal Notice of the Salaries and Remuneration Commission.
President Uhuru Kenyatta
They exhibited the highest level of impunity as they harnessed corruption of brotherhood/sisterhood. Kenyans have a solemn obligation to stop this barbaric act of gullible, greedy, self-minded incompetent Kenyan Legislators who are belittling the power of the Kenyan voter.
I had an opportunity to listen to the live debates on the FM radio as they were debating on this bill and I was subjected to a rude shock just like many other Kenyans on how the debate degenerated to a primitive argument. The MPs castigated the chairperson of the salaries commission Sarah Serem for doing a job she had been employed to do which is rationalizing the salaries. The chairperson of the Committee on Delegated Legislation William Cheptumo who is the architect of the bill received cheers and foot-thumbing while presenting the bill. It was very hard to differentiate the MPs from CORD and Jubilee at that juncture.
The deputy leader of Minority in Parliament Jakoyo Midiwo left many Kenyans perplexed when he giving his ill-advised insensitive speech. Saying that they will fire Serem the way they did to former KACC Directors Aaron Ringera and Prof. PLO Lumumba was not only naïve of Midiwo but also a slap on the face of Kenyans who voted for him. Kenyans miss Mr. PLO Lumumba and remember very well how he had started to bring sanity in our country. We adore principled leaders like PLO and not volatile leaders like Midiwo who are swayed by their stomachs and not their mind.
While supporting the motion, Igembe South, TNA MP Mithika Linturi foolishly said that “When people are poor, when they have nothing, the probability of compromise is very high,” He was paradoxically ridiculing the millions of poor Kenyans who are easily compromised during election time by the politicians, who have and are still working to maintain their status quo. Mr. Linturi should clearly know that Kenyans are no longer thinking inside the Box and soon than later he and his colleagues will face the full wrath of the poor Kenyan tax payers.
Their claim that there was nowhere in the world where a supervisor earned less that the person being supervised, is in itself ironical. Kenyans are the employees and therefore the supervisors of the MPs, but they hardly earn what the legislators earn. Worse to say, we are paying them to discuss who was massaged by whom and if that is not the bill, then the bill is how to increase their salaries. I wonder who is fooling who here!
We know all the MPs are now thinking alike, they are together and we as Kenyans are watching and wondering if we made wrong choices in the just concluded general election. To paraphrase what Malcolm X once said, “The day that the black man takes an uncompromising step and realizes that he’s within his rights, when his own freedom is being jeopardized, to use any means necessary to bring about his freedom or put a halt to that injustice, I don’t think he’ll be by himself.” This literally translates to our Kenyan political elites; Kenyans are going to take an uncompromising step and use any means necessary to ground your selfish ends.
The chairperson of the salaries commission Sarah Serem, should not be shaken and should remain steady, knowing that Kenyans are unrelentingly supporting her and the commission. Kenyans never, elected you, but you are standing with them and protecting them from the self-centered mediocre, egocentric MPS from stealing from the hard working Kenyans. We are praying for you and when the history books shall be written, your name shall be there as the first African woman to fight for the people who did not elect or appoint her, from being exploited by the people they elected.
Lastly, to the President of the republic of Kenya, Hon Uhuru Kenyatta, we have seen you publicly telling off these egomaniac elites that Kenyans need service delivery first, before the salary increment demands come in. That was amazingly hilarious and in good taste from you. Now we are demanding as a people who have employed you not to sign into law the bill once it gets its way to your door. Let them know that you are defending the sovereignty of the country which rests on the shoulders of Kenyans. Stand with the more than 40 million poor hard working Kenyans Mr. President and not the 400 rich MPs.
By Nyangenya Bwomanga, Texas USA
