The political class in Kenya has utterly failed to walk the talk of austerity that they so love to pontificate about to the rest of the population. It is worrying that even as many Kenyans are suffering in difficult economic circumstances, there are numerous reports of politicians continuing to push for higher perks, some of which border on criminality.
Lawmakers, for instance, have kept on demanding and awarding themselves more allowances, and the burden of paying them is borne by taxpayers who are already paying way too much in taxes relative to the size of the economy and their incomes. There is already a court case where the MPs are fighting the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) over a self-awarded Sh250,000 house allowance that the commission wants to stop.
Additionally, data from the Controller of Budget released on Monday shows that travel spending for MPs grew 88 percent in the nine months to March.
The figures show a huge spending of Sh1.2 billion on trips abroad, compared with Sh714.2 million in the previous period. The executive arm of the government is no better. The data also shows that the President’s and his deputy’s foreign travel costs increased five-fold in the nine months under review.
Certainly, what all this means is that for all the austerity talk, there is little to show by example. There is still a lot of wastage that happens in government as audit reports regularly reveal.
It may, in the circumstances, seem impossible to tame this insatiable greed of the political class. However, politicians and bureaucrats must always bear in mind that there is always a breaking point and at some point the population could turn to unconventional ways if they feel that the ruling class has totally failed them. It is perhaps time to lead by example.
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Note: The results are not exact but very close to the actual.
