Parliament ought to be more circumspect in the way it is allocating money to MPs and Senators for prudence and need in the wake of the pressure to achieve more for a shilling that taxpayers are producing in these hard economic times.
Whereas it is the duty of the Senate to audit and monitor how governors are spending, this ought to be done prudently. That is why the request by Senators to be allocated Sh193.5 million to travel and see what governors are doing needs rethinking. What is more, on top of this, they have asked for an additional Sh100 million to buy vehicles, a clear evidence that they are not thrifty in the way they are going about this budget.
True, Senators must be facilitated to do their job, but is the way they are going about it the best and most cost-effective? Clearly not.
This approach makes the Senate, and Parliament in general, look like a place where politicians go to enrich themselves and to allocate themselves money from the tax kitty without considering the economy or the challenges confronting the public. This will increase competition for political offices because of perks.
The first duty of representatives is to serve.
They cannot put governors to task for wastage of public resources if they are guilty of the same sins. They clearly need to get their priorities right.
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Note: The results are not exact but very close to the actual.
