This country has a lot of money. We spent Sh. 42billion in a sham election that the Supreme Court nullified and found another Sh.13billion to conduct a second exercise.
It’s like money falls from trees until it’s the common man that really needs it. Never mind since April this year the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has been warning us about rising public debt in the country.
The latest warning came only a few days ago. IMF said the rising debt is likely to shock the economy and one would expect that such a warning would make us check our appetite for spending but no, we’re unfazed.
Statehouse only this week spent another Sh.300million to entertain foreign guests who attended President Uhuru Kenyatta’s swearing-in. But Head of Public Service and State House Chief of Staff, Joseph Kinyua said there will be no waste; so we should all rest easy, right?
Anyhow, some people have reasoned that the government-executive arm has always been aloof since time immemorial. One therefore expects that Parliament as the arm of government that actually represents the common man would grasp the public mood but Parliament is no different.
As I write there is a construction of a Sh. 110million tunnel connecting the Parliamentary Office block a couple of meters across the road. The Parliamentary Service Committee says it is part of a plan to decongest the city traffic.
It’s hard buying that tale because MPs are on record complaining about annoying constituents who wait for them outside Parliament buildings or their offices to ask for this or that help. So the tunnel is purely to keep off these poor folks from disturbing the honorable as they go about “important” business.
And by-the-way the Sh. 110 million could fund 688 university students through university all the four years. But that’s nothing compared to the privacy that MPs need as they go about their business.
Never mind that 900,000 Kenyans, out of the two million with HIV, are the only ones on treatment according to Ministry of Health PS Mwilu.
Today is World Aids Day and seeing as we have been on a divisive mode the past few months one would expect our MPs could’ve come together on this day and direct this money to this national challenge right?
The tunnel we’re constructing for MPs privacy-because that’s what it’s really about-can ensure another over 423 Kenyans access the highly successful Tenofovir drug by Gilead Sciences which by-the-way doesn’t exist anywhere in Africa because it’s retailing at Sh. 260,000.
If one is to consider the many projects that we undertake at the expense of priority stuff one would get a serious headache because our inability to figure what’s priority is disturbing.
This spendthrift habit in difficult times should serve as a wakeup call to all Kenyans. There are only two tribes in Kenya-the haves and the have-nots
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