Referendum can help us reduce public wage burden

Opinion and Analysis

Students study at the Kenya National Library Service Mombasa Branch as schools remained closed over the teachers’ pay dispute on September 21, 2015. PHOTO | KEVIN ODIT 

By JOSEPH LISTER NYARINGO

There is no doubt that the current Constitution is better than the one we had previously. However, the crafters failed to adhere to one fundamental aspect: the ramifications of a bloated Legislature and its impact on the Exchequer.

So far, we need to applaud the Jubilee government for crafting a lean Cabinet, but the raging debate on the wage bill isn’t something that can be wished away when national economic indicators reflect a downward trend.

Recently, Controller of Budget Agnes Odhiambo expressed how the country is being drained on paying salaries instead of development projects. This was the clearest indication that a small government is a panacea for Kenya’s economic success.

It’s through downsizing the public workforce and scrapping unnecessary bureaucracies nationally and at the county levels that Kenya can move forward to become a developed country.

On the current Constitution, we all know that laws are not carved on stone but formed by humans to be changed, augmented, scrapped or improved to suit prevailing governance systems and processes.

Since it was not a perfect document during its passage by Kenyans, it means that it can be subjected to amendments to suit the needs of the country.

Streamline

The debate on downsizing the National Assembly has come at the right time. It’s healthy for Kenyans to point out the pros and cons of the current Constitution in order to streamline the faulty areas through a referendum.

We need to look at how to scale down the bloated legislators, especially Parliament and see if the country real needs the Senate.

There is no reason why Kenya; a nation of 40 million people should have 358 Members of Parliament and 67 Senators. It would make a lot of sense if we either scrap the Senate or reduce the current constituencies by merging them.

Additionally, if we had transformed the eight provinces into counties, it would have saved the Treasury huge expenditure costs because, as it stands today, funding 47 counties has proved to be a burden.

Besides, it’s emerging that the counties; once touted as the pillars of development are proving to be pillars of disunity and clanism.

Secondly, we need to abolish the apportioning of seats to special interest groups in the Senate and Parliament because, it doesn’t serve any purpose.

Laws are not made to benefit a particular group but to serve every Kenyans fairly, justifiably and with impartiality.

The duplication of roles is also another area that needs to be looked into both at the national and county governments. In the Counties, there is glaring waste. The best way to go is to have a referendum in order to fix the anomalies.
The writer lives in New Jersey, US.