CAN POOR KENYANS AFFORD A CABINET OF 40? (PUTTING OUT THE FIRE WITH GASOLINE)
By Mwalimu Mati
We are told that Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga (Principals to the Kenya National Accord) have settled on a Kenya Cabinet size of 40. Prepare yourselves to pay through your noses, unless and until we manage to convince these two men to see what is obvious: Kenya cannot afford such a large Cabinet. Kenya does not need such a large Cabinet. This is a very bad start for a Grand Coalition that has yet to be accepted by a majority of Kenyans.
To remind the Principals of why they are where they are, between December last year and February 28th this year, our country went through a near death experience because of a botched election in which they were main actors. We accepted a hybrid form of Government (the so called Grand Coalition) because we feared for our lives, but that doesn’t mean we have taken leave of our senses and abandoned our rights. We are perfectly able to choose for ourselves whether we will accept insult after insult.
Over the last week, sometimes under clouds of teargas, Kenya’s only Nobel Laureate, civil society and most Kenyans have given their clear instructions to the Principals as regards the formation of Government on the following terms. Make it lean and Make it Clean. Today the Principals have rejected the “lean” instructions; by April 12th 2008 I predict that we will be moaning about how disgusted we are that such and such Minister is being fronted as “clean”.
Many calculate the extra cost of an expanded Cabinet by only taking into account the personal emoluments of the Minister. It is far more serious and costly than that. Each of these new Ministers comes with institutional costs that run into the billions every year – the so called recurrent costs. According to the 2007/8 budget (estimates of recurrent expenditure of Government) the total cost of running 34 ministries this year is Ksh 299.6 billion (an average of Ksh 8 billion per ministry per annum). Using the same average cost, and back of the envelope calculations, 40 Ministries might cost you and me about Ksh 352 billion. Do the arithmetic. Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga’s decision is that you will spend Ksh 52 billion more this year at the very least. Next year and the year after that, prepare yourself to pay more!
It is Parliament’s fault. The two Principals are able to do what they have done because despite the clear provisions of section 16 of the Constitution, Parliament has never made a law to establish and determine the number and portfolios of the Cabinet. Thus Ministerial positions remain the personal gift of two men, never mind what the Constitution of Kenya intended. Because we let Parliament get away with not passing an important law, we have all collectively condemned ourselves to pay for the largest Cabinet in Kenya’s 45 year history.
The Principals have betrayed the Kenyan taxpayer because they are unwilling to interfere with the blind ambitions of our Members of Parliament, many of whom we have not seen in the 90 plus days since they were elected. Are you prepared to fork out another 52 billion shillings or so every year to accommodate your Member of Parliament’s desire to have a flag and to be called “Waziri”?
Let’s be clear, MPs were elected to represent us, not to agitate for wasteful government expenditure in the name of power sharing. Certainly, they are not meant to be inciting Government to spend Ksh 52 billion more for no serious purpose beyond contriving to get Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga to give them sinecures at public expense.
If you read the 2007/2008 Estimates of Recurrent Expenditure of the Government of Kenya, you will find that Ksh 52 billion per year is equivalent to half of Kenya’s current annual public debt repayments. Ksh 50 billion would finance the youth fund for 50 years and the women’s fund for 25 years. Ksh 52 billion would build five 10-lane highways each of 50 km of length – the distance between Nairobi and Thika. It is equal to all the aid in loans and grants received from bilateral partners for development; and twice the grants Kenya receives from multilaterals such as the World Bank.
We cannot afford to spend Ksh 52 billion this year on a bloated government. We have better things to do with our money, and we should tell the Principals so, loud and clear. The GOK has asked donors for Ksh 31 billion to resettle 500,000 displaced Kenyans over three months. How shameful that they would rather spend our tax money on pampering 40 politicians than to ameliorate the pathetic living conditions of hundreds of thousands.
Kenya’s tax money should be used for the immediate care of the poorest and not the wealthiest Kenyans. Nearly twenty million Kenyans live on less than Ksh 64 per day. That means they will make no more or have no more to spend than Ksh 25,000 in a whole year. And that is for families! These are the Kenyans we should be spending money on. I would prefer to spend 52 billion shillings this coming year on poor Kenyans rather than continuing to fatten political sacred cows.
People of conscience can’t afford to remain silent on this flagrant abuse of power. We must exercise our democratic options to protest this abuse of trust by Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga. We must not fear their teargas or truncheons, because we are the people who will pay for their largesse through our taxes, generated by sweat and toil.
If I were a Member of Parliament, I would move a motion to make illegal what Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga have done. I would also move a motion to pass a law capping the number of Ministries at 13. We need not have a single extra ministry! This would save the country around Ksh 200 billion immediately. Any takers in Parliament to hear us out?
Mwalimu Mati
CEO, www.marsgroupkenya.org
Section 16 of the Constitution of Kenya reads as follows:
Ministers of the Government of Kenya