Reducing number of MPs is a bitter pill to swallow, but it must be done

Commission for the Implementation of the Commission (CIC) Chairman Charles Nyachae speaks at a past press conference. Mr Nyachae has said Kenyans are, on the whole, over-represented and something must be done about it. PHOTO | ROBERT NGUGI | NATION MEDIA GROUP 

In Summary

• Charles Nyachae, has added his voice to the growing concern, saying that Kenyans are, on the whole, over-represented and something must done about it.
• Indeed, it makes very little sense for a poor country of 42 million souls to be represented by 349 legislators, who include 290 elected and 12 nominated MPs, as well as 47 women representatives.
• As my MP Moses Kuria graphically puts it, “Punda imechoka; punguza mzigo.” Indeed, the donkey is tired.

By MAGESHA NGWIRI
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It takes guts for an MP to tell his colleagues that some of them should be sent home permanently and their constituencies rendered redundant or merged with their neighbours.

It takes a degree of selflessness to suggest that the National Assembly and county assemblies have become the greatest guzzlers of scarce national resources with very little to show for it, and rationalisation is the only way forward.

A number of courageous legislators have done it.

So have newspaper columnists and pundits.

Now, the former chairman of the defunct Commission for the Implementation of the Constitution, Mr Charles Nyachae, has added his voice to the growing concern, saying that Kenyans are, on the whole, over-represented and something must done about it.

Indeed, it makes very little sense for a poor country of 42 million souls to be represented by 349 legislators, who include 290 elected and 12 nominated MPs, as well as 47 women representatives.

If each of these folks is paid at least one million shillings every month in salaries and perks, and beyond that, most of them earn another million shillings in committee sitting and travel allowances, it could very well mean that at a conservative estimate, they people consume Sh1 billion every month.

And if, as has been revealed, a number cheat on mileage claims, isn’t it obvious that our representatives at the constituency level gobble up a substantial percentage of the country’s revenue every year “without any increase in benefits to the public” as Mr Nyachae put it?

Here we are not even talking about 2,526 members of county assemblies, each of whom earns at least Sh250,000 per month besides numerous perks, per diems and sitting allowances.

When we talk of a bloated public wage bill and the need to reduce it, it is interesting that most people think about civil servants; rarely do they do the math and identify the bottomless pit into which our tax money goes — into the pockets of our elected and nominated “people’s servants”.

INELUCTABLE ACTION
A reduction in the number of constituencies should obviously lead to a reduction in the number of counties, which would make a lot of sense, but that would destroy the logic of devolution and would be a hard sell.

In fact, it would lead to the dismantling of the Constitution.

But leaving that aside, we should go back to discussing why a reduction in the number of constituencies is desirable.

To start with, in terms of representation, our MPs have little to do.

Yes, they make laws as per their mandate, and they oversee the constituency development and other funds.

They also vet appointments to top public jobs and, ideally, should oversight the operations of the Executive and the full implementation of the Constitution.

But the general feeling about them these days is that they exercise a great deal of power without the responsibility or the moral authority to go with it.

The moment they watered down vital constitutional provisions on probity contained in the Leadership and Integrity Act, it led to crooks and knaves populating the august institution.

Is it any wonder that they are forever fighting all the other arms of government?

They discovered early that this is the only way they could shield themselves from public scrutiny, and that impunity actually pays.

EASE THE BURDEN
Long gone are the days when MPs were supposed to launch development projects in their areas.

They no longer have to conduct harambees for building clinics, schools and suchlike.

In the days of centralised governance, an MP had no choice but to become “development-conscious”, which in essence meant cosying up to the President or to the then monolithic ruling party, Kanu.

Woe betide an MP who failed to sing fulsome praises; his or her constituents suffered deliberate neglect.

However, in these days of devolved governance, governors call all the shots in their counties. So why should the country need so many MPs?

The irony of the whole issue is that without their input, even this notion of reducing the high number of representation in the interests of ordinary Kenyans may turn out to be a pipe dream.

Thankfully, such an issue can only be resolved through a referendum which, in my view, deserves more attention than those issues meant purely to advance narrow political goals.

As my MP Moses Kuria graphically puts it, “Punda imechoka; punguza mzigo.” Indeed, the donkey is tired.