The 9th parliament will not be missed

The first post KANU parliament will not be missed by many Kenyans after all. It had its share of successes but will be more memorable for its excesses and failures than its achievements.

It is true it did some good things by passing some relevant bills such as which led to the establishment of Constituency Development Fund(CDF) and it’s increment in funding, Sexual offences bill, privatization authority, the insurance regulatory authority, and number of funding and regulating  regimes just to mention a few. But it’s more memorable on the down side of things.

To start with it will be remembered for its notoriety to increase
their MP’s remuneration and other perks with contemptuous abandon. It is true that MP’s finances are very committed due to the many demands of their jobs. But their approach to their emoluments were too selfish viewed in the prism of other hard working and suffering public servants like teachers, nurses, police and junior civil servants.

Secondly their management of CDF across various constituencies across the country has been very wanting. This also is replicated in various other funds under their control. Besides poor managements of the resources their skewed appointments to run the funds is quite alarming.

Thirdly and not finally, the MP’s will be remembered  for attempts to gag the media through the media bill 2007, their attempt to clip the wings of Kenya Anti Corruption Commission (KACC) , and their ineptitude when it came to grasp of  very critical matters in the August house, plus their poor attendance record.

As mentioned above that was not their last failing, suffice it to say that the 9th parliament did not live to its high expectation. As envisaged many will have it rough trying to make it back to the 10th parliament. But this not to say we do not have good MP’s in Kenya. They are there and some have made good contributions. Such are like Njoki Ndungu on the Sexual offences bill and others who may deserve mention in annals of history.

Hopefully Kenya will awaken to the reality and demand more
accountability from their MP’s. At any rate they are well rewarded for a quite demanding job.

By Harrison  Mwirigi  Ikunda, API/APN correspondent
Nairobi, Kenya.

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