Politicians
in this country love retreating to expensive hotels to strategise and come up
with solutions whenever they are facing a crisis or the country is facing one.
The serene locations seem to work magic and they always come up with
long-lasting solutions. The bill is footed by mwananchi but that is immaterial considering the accruing benefits for
her and future generations.
The president,
in line with this tradition announced from the immaculate lawns of the Mount
Kenya Safari Lodge that he had taken a pay cut, together with his deputy and
the rest of the cabinet. This definitely is supposed to be big news in this
country.Uhuru’s is the first government to be that sensitive to the needs of
its people. That for sure will go down in Kenyan history as the first ever
selfless act by a sitting president with his lean cabinet. Our avaricious MPs
must be in utter shock right now. They know that the sensible thing to do under
the current hard economic conditions is to jump at any opportunity to increase
their salaries.
The
president must be thanked for that act of kindness, but again we know Kenyans
are very thankless and will quickly dismiss the move as populist. They will
question it as they have already done and say that he must tackle the real
problems facing the country. Some good for nothing politicians have already
warned us that the move is a precursor to slash the salaries of other low –paid,poor,hardworking,
civil servants who instead deserve a pay rise. They have pointed out that the
government must address and tackle what exactly is causing house rent,matatu
fare,petrol,unga,bread and milk to be unaffordable by most Kenyans.The
president does not like noise,and soon he will issue a statement saying it must
stop just like he said on the allegations that standard gauge railway contract was riddled with corruption. I am
afraid these good for nothing politicians and thankless Kenyans have some point
despite the noise they are making
They are
right because the president seems to be simplistic in his approach in tackling
the economic problems that are facing Kenyans at the moment. The approach by
the president suggests that a pay cut will translate into employment,
affordable housing, and health care etc. At the risk of contradicting myself, I
must state that having a pay cuts is just a moral thing to do. It is immoral to
earn that kind of salary when other Kenyans are barely surviving.Therefore that
will only go a long way in salving the conscience of the president and his
cabinet. I do not think it will have any significant impact on the poor state
of the ailing economy and eventually on the lives of Kenyans it is supposed to
‘’help’’. That might only placate poor Kenyans for some time,perhaps by taking
solace in the fact that times are hard and they must persevere given even their
president has slashed his salary.
The
president knows that corruption and unemployment are the main causes of the
problems Kenyans are facing. He knows that wastage of public funds by
government institutions to purchase overpriced things such as mandazi,chai and
flowers is where the problems lies. We have for example an ailing sugar
industry,slowly being killed by known sugar barons who smuggle cheap sugar in
the country. The president knows why many Kenyans cannot afford medical care
and are still crying for that.The president knows what is to be fixed and
create employment opportunities for the youth.In a nut shell,he needs to face
the problems he was entrusted to tackle head-on. He needs to concentrate on the
real causes of the ailing economy and stop these stop-gap measures. They are
things he vowed to tackle during his campaign.
That brings
me to another thing; the president has severally been praised for bringing a
breath of fresh air to the presidency. His is a digital government or so we are
told.However, his conduct and approach in most cases just like in this pay cut incident,
the president has behaved like he is still on the campaign trail and still
wooing Kenyan’s votes. The tone of his language when making such statement, the
demeanour just like the deputy president is that of seeking the validation of Kenyans.
He is president and Kenyans do not want lots of talk and warnings to tackle
corruption and unemployment. Just action. He should not make such luke- warm
attempts to solve our problems.
