“When President Kibaki walks out of state house after the next elections he will go home with a hefty gratuity of 50 million shillings…In addition to the one off payment the Finance Minister, Njeru Githae, has proposed to increase the annual allocation for retired Presidents from the current 17.7 million shillings to 30.2 million shillings. The increase is meant to cater for the monthly pension which is due to Kibaki plus what tax payers have been paying to ex-President Moi since 2003…the gratuity is considered a ‘token of appreciation’ from Kenyans to the President for the hard work that the President has been doing for the two terms he will have served by the time he leaves office. The amount is calculated as a sum equal to one year’s salary for each term Kibaki has served as President. Kibaki will also be entitled to get a monthly pension equal to eighty per cent of his current salary of Sh 2 million a month, approximately 24 million per year.”

The President’s gratuity is the highest to be paid in the history of the country and has already been factored into the 2012/2013 budget. The gratuity is also projected to rise by approximately 1 million shillings year on year in the 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 fiscal years. This comes on the heels of the increase of the gratuity to be paid to MPs at the end of their term.

Given the state of the country, high inflation, high unemployment, high cost of living, the huge budget deficit, the recent move by the Cabinet to cap the salaries of civil servants, you would think implementing austerity measures across the board would be chief among the governments priorities, particularly for a group the what are already amongst highest bracket of earners in the country.

In country that is run by not just a President, but a Prime Minister, a vice president, and two deputy prime ministers, this sort to development is worrying. What are your thoughts on the proposed gratuity for the President?

This of course no longer holds true. This year only 41, 879 of those that sat their KSCE exams last year, i.e. 2011, will be admitted to public universities. That means more than half of the 118, 256 students who qualified to join public universities will not be selected to join, due to lack of places. The number of students that will miss out on secondary school slots is even higher. This year the Ministry of Education estimated that approximately 205,000 pupils who sat for their KCPE exams in 2011 would miss a place at secondary school. Of course the option to go private exists but the cost of private education is prohibitive for most Kenyans.

Those that make it out the other end of the education system, and successfully graduate from university, do not always fair as well as expected in the “real world”. Not only is there a shortage of jobs for graduates to take up, the current system of education has been accused of producing graduates that are not fit for the work place. The heavy workload of the current system of public education has been said to reduce learning to cramming for a series of standardized tests while imparting very few skills necessary for the workplace. And these are not the only isssues, apart from the problems inherent to the system of education itself, the education sector seems to be in a state of crisis i.e. the misappropriation of funds for the provision of free primary education; frequent strikes by teachers over low wages and understaffing; accusations of unfair distribution of education bursaries…the lists seems endless.

However despite the problems with the education sector/system and that the fact that the benefits of education are no longer linear a good education remains a crucial element in breaking the cycle of poverty. A good education system is represents the largest investment that that government makes in human capital. Ideally education should work to develop a constituency that is knowledgeable in evaluating options based on available evidence and criteria i.e. the education should help us makes educated decisions, but does our current education system do that or is it broken? How would you the rate state of public education in Kenya, not just for quality or its transformative effect on the lives of individuals who receive it, but also for the effect of public education on the development of the country, and in the building, sustainable democracy – good, bad or average? And is the government playing an effective role in education reform?

According to a report in the Daily Nation, “the legislators want the Treasury to set aside a Kshs. 500 million [of the 18.1 billion] to cover taxes of the MPs of the tenth parliament (the current one) between July 1st when the financial year began and January 15, 2013 when the term of the Tenth Parliament expires. The Kshs. 500 million will bring the total tax bill that taxpayers foot for MPs to Kshs. 2.5 billion. The MPs tax bill has been accumulating since August 27, 2010, when the new constitution was promulgated.”

The request for the Kshs. 500million to cover the cost of MPs taxes comes on the heels of the legislators assent to amend the National Assembly Remuneration Act to allow MPs to accrue Kshs. 3.72 million each as gratuity at the end of the term of the current parliament.

From the dexterity with which the members of parliament have managed to collate their individual tax bills and pass this on to the taxpayer, it would appear that both the meaning of tax and how it works is either completely lost on or being purposely disregarded by MPs; who are not only amongst the highest paid MPs in the world but have enjoyed tax free salaries and benefits from 1975 until 2010 when the constitution made it law for all State Officers to pay taxes.

It is clear from the recent actions of the MPs of the tenth parliament that if policy or law is poorly executed through a failure of leadership it is as good useless. In our system of government MPs are meant to be our representatives and they are meant to represent our views and our interest. But from their recent actions it would be fair to ask whose interests the members of the parliament working in? It would be interesting to see the response of Salaries and Remuneration Commission, the body that was created to meet the overwhelming demand by Kenyans for an independent body to set the salaries of State officers?

MP Millie Odhiambo Mabona, one of the few MPs that opposed to the amendment stated of it, “I will not be party to unfairness to this country. Members of parliament have refused to reduce interest rates for members of the public, but when it comes to our own things, we are quick and sneaky.”

Our Members of Parliament are amongst the highest paid in the world and last week they amended a law to allow each of them to accrue 3.72 million shillings as gratuity at the end of the term of the current parliament. The amount represents 31% of the annual salary that an MP earns. So the total cost of the MPs gratuity to the taxpayer comes close to a total of 1 billion shillings, 825.84 million shillings to be exact (3.72 million shillings multiplied by 222 members of parliament).

Gratuity/severance for Members of Parliament is nothing new. Before parliamentarians amended the law they were to receive as their gratuity, 300,000 shillings per annum on a flat rate for each of the 5 years of their term i.e. a total of 1.5 million shillings. On Thursday last week the Finance Minister, Njeru Githae, proposed an amendment that would see this amount more than doubled. The Finance Minister moved a motion to amend the National Assembly Remuneration Act by deleting the words “A severance at the rate of Kshs. 300,000.00 for every year in service” and substituting those words with “A severance allowance at the rate of thirty one per centum of the salary.”

The move to double the gratuity of Members of Parliament comes at a time when: inflation is in double digits approximately 17%, the cost of living is at an all time high, the Parliamentary Budget Office has warned of the dilemma the government is facing financing the next budget due to the country’s current budget deficit. The government is also in the midst of pay disputes with crucial civil service sector workers and is faced with intermittent strikes from doctors, nurses and teachers over salaries. Most recently the Kenya National Union of Teachers warned the government that its members will cease work on July 1st unless the government hires more teachers and starts negotiations for a 300% salary raise agreed on earlier this year. In light of these factors the decision to amend the law to double the gratuity of the members of the 10th parliament seems to me to be a case of wrong choices, priorities, and values.

The irony of the move by parliament to double the gratuity of its members is the fact that in same week the government made a decision to cap the salaries of civil servants at both national and county levels requesting that, “public servants be sensitive to the plight of the taxpayers.”

The whole of chapter 6 of the constitution lays down the principles upon which the State Officers (the President, the Deputy President, other members of the Cabinet, Members of Parliament, members of the new County Governments, judges magistrates and members of commissions) should conduct themselves. The chapter makes it clear that the power exercised by State Officers is a public trust that is to be exercised to serve the people. In exercising this power, state officers are required to demonstrate respect for the people of Kenya, make decisions objectively and impartially, refuse to be influenced by favouritism or corruption, serve selflessly and be accountable for their actions. These are the standards to which we should hold the leadership we intend to elect.

The Independent Electoral Boundaries Commission (IEBC) recently announced that politicians who failed the integrity test would be barred from running in the up coming elections. According to the IEBC regulations, “ A party shall not present to the Commission for purposes of nomination, a person who does not meet the qualifications set for a particular office under the Constitution, the Act or any other Act of Parliament.”

The yet to be passed Leadership and Integrity Bill fleshes out the requirements of the Chapter 6 of the constitution: And Article 35, of the yet to be passed bill, bars persons with integrity deficits from running in the next election stating “A person seeking to be appointed or elected as a state officer may not be eligible for appointment or to stand for election to such office if that person has, as a State Officer, contravened the leadership and integrity Code under this Act or while serving as a public officer, has contravened a code of ethics and integrity applicable under this Act.”

Over the years we have had a large number of scandals in which the leadership of the country have been implicated, the Maize Scandal, Kazi Kwa Vijana, Goldenberg, Anglo-leasing, post election violence, and the list goes on. The consequence of these scandals has been everything except but out right conviction: we have had ministerial resignations/stepping down, adverse mentions of persons in leadership in reports of commissions of enquiry, some leaders have been the subject of civil and criminal court proceedings that have either been dismissed, had a ‘nolle prosequi’ issued or are still pending.

While legislation goes some way in trying to ensure that Kenya has scrupulous leaders, by and large the greatest responsibility with regard to ensuring the country’s leaders exhibit to political and personal integrity lies with the voters. But how often do we as voters take into account the past record of our prospective leaders? How do we as voters evaluate a prospective candidate’s integrity? Or do considerations other than personal and political integrity of prospective candidate’s take primacy in our voting considerations?

Electioneering is expensive and the bigger the elections the higher the cost. In the first election under the new constitution, in one day at least 20 million Kenyans are expected to vote, in six electoral contests (President/Deputy, Member of the National Assembly, Special Women Ballot, Senator, Governor/Deputy, Members of the County Assemblies), taking place in 290 constituencies and 1,450 wards, plus other special seats elected on the basis of a party list. All this of course comes at a cost. The 15 billion shillings is mostly for the administrative and logistical part of running the elections, and does not factor in the billions of shillings that it will cost to the run the new government once it is in place. Clearly politics remains resilient even in a poor economy.

Since this is the first election under the new dispensation there is little way of telling if there is an equally efficient but less expensive way to run the upcoming election. However I am sure like myself a lot of Kenyan are questioning whether 15 billion shillings for the election is on the high side, given the size of the country. The question that immediately springs to mind regarding the cost of the upcoming election is, “where is the money going to come from?” Parliament’s Budget Office has already projected a shortfall of up to 27 billion shillings in the next budget. It stands to reason that part of the cost of the election process will be loaded on to the taxpayer’s bill.

And if there was any doubt that the tax payer will be footing at least part of the bill for the election, the Parliamentary Budget Office brief to MPs titled “Managing the Transition Budget options for 2012/2013, and the Medium Term” confirms it noting that, “the current mix of tax instruments cannot provide sufficient resources…the new Constitution has resulted in expenditure which has resulted in a bulging budget. There is an increasing pressure on the government to increase tax collection. This translates into an increased burden on the tax payer.”

Being a taxpayer there are of course questions about accountability, transparency and the watching/auditing the election budget. Equally important in such an expensive is ensuring making it count.

What are your thoughts on the expense of the upcoming election?

Both the constitution and national legislation i.e. the Political Parties Act 2011 and the Elections Act 2011, provide for the regulation of political party financing. In the constitution Article 92 (f), (g) and (h) requires Parliament to make laws for the establishment and management of state funding for political parties through a political parties fund; for the audit of accounts of political parties and laws to ensure restrictions on the use of public resources to promote the interests of political parties; Sections 23-31 of the Political Parties Act 2011 that deals with the issue of funding and accounts for political parties restricts sources for political party funding to:

• State funding via the Political Parties Fund;
• Membership fees;
• Voluntary contributions from a lawful source;
• Donations, bequests and grants from any other lawful source, not being from a non-citizen, foreign government, inter-governmental or non-governmental organization; and
• The proceeds of any investment, project or undertaking in which the political party has an interest.
• Foreign agency, or a foreign political party which shares an ideology with a political party registered in Kenya, may provide technical assistance to that political party.

Ideally the laws on political party/political candidate financing should even the playing field ensuring the one party/candidate does no so dramatically outspend another giving them a disproportionate influence over the voting public.

However despite the existence of a robust legal framework for regulating political party financing a Global Integrity report ranked Kenya amongst the lowest-scoring countries in terms of the political finance regulation. The report scores the countries based on effectiveness of laws regulating individual and corporate donations to political parties as well as the auditing of these donations and campaign expenditure.

While the country scored 67 out of 100 for its regulations on political financing regulations, it scored 0 out 100 for effectiveness of these regulations. The country also scored 0 out of 100 on implementation of laws governing political financing and disclosure of political party/political candidate financing information to the public, an aspect the report stated was non-existent in the country. In lay speak we have the laws, but no one is implementing or enforcing them.

The results, particular the zeros in enforcement, and implementation of political party financing regulations, may seem alarming; but when you really think about it how transparent are political parties/political candidates about how and from where they receive their funding; and how accessible information on political party/political candidate financing?

Two months ago we published a report that alleged that the CDF fund for the Tigania West Constituency. managed by Honourable Kilemi Miwria was mismanaged.

The member subsequently got in touch with us to clarify the serious allegations and we subsequently took down the post.

We however failed to publicly acknowledge this, a significant oversight on our part.  In this regard we take this opportunity to unreservedly apologize to Honourable Kilemi Mwiria and the people of Tigania West for the aspersions unwittingly cast against him and his committee.

In the interests of transparency we also will obtain and publish the clearance from the EACC in this regard as soon as possible. we have obtained the letter from the EACC  as displayed below

Mzalendo is a non-partisan volunteer project started in 2003 whose mission is to ‘keep an eye on the Kenyan parliament.’ Mzalendo seeks to promote greater public voice and enhance public participation in politics by providing relevant information about the National Assembly’s activities, MPs, and aspirants ahead of the 2012 elections.

As such we have no political, or any other affiliations with any political party or politician, and are totally non partisan.

This matter has pointed out to us the significant flaws in dealing with content sourced from third parties, and dealing with the right of response. In this regard we are preparing a policy on the same that we hope will avoid any such occurrences in the future.

However having too many political parties is bad for democracy, they are hard to vet, monitor and keep a tab on. Before 2007 Kenya had more than 300 political parties. 168 of these were registered with the Registrar of Societies, of these parties 117 nominated candidates to run for the National Assembly in the 2007 elections. Can you imagine every voter having to go through 168 party manifestos to determine which party and which candidates hold their ideals, its no wonder voters simply chose ethnicity, and personality as deciding factors in their voting choices.

Fortunately by 2010 the number of Registered Parties was reduced to 47 by virtue of the fact that a majority of the parties registered under the lenient regieme of the Societies Act failed to meet the registration requirements of the Political Parties Act 2007. The promulgation of the constitution in 2010 and the enactment of the Political Act 2011 will probably see the numbers of political parties reduced even further.

In order to gain full registration under Section 7 of the Political Parties Act 2011 a political party must demonstrate:

• It has recruited as members, not fewer than one thousand registered voters from more than half of the countries counties;
• That its members reflect regional and ethnic diversity, gender balance and representation of minorities and marginalized groups;
• That the composition of its governing body reflects regional and ethnic diversity, gender balance and representation of minorities and marginalized groups;
• That not more than two-thirds of the members of its governing body are of the same gender; and
• That members of its governing body meet the requirements of Chapter Six of the Constitution and the laws relating to ethics;

(Full political parties compliance checklist here)

The importance of registration of political parties lies in the fact that although Article 85 of the constitution allows independent candidates to run in the next election – “Any person is eligible to stand as an independent candidate for election if the person is not a member of a registered political party and has not been a member for at least three months immediately before the date of the election.” – political parties remain the main vehicle through which candidates are elected/nominated to political office. Apart from independent candidates only members of registered political parties can stand for the general election, this underscores the importance of registration of political parties, which closes at the end of this month (April 30^th 2012).

So far out of the 47 parties registered under the 2007 Political Parties Act only 15 have submitted documents to the Registrar of parties to show compliance, and only 5 have fully complied with the requirements of the Political Parties Act 2011 and been granted full registration.

However fewer political parties may actually prove to be a good thing. Fewer political parties will be easier to vet and monitor. It will be easier for voters to determine what political parties stand for and be able to hold the political parties for proper performance of their function as political parties. Hopefully with the new legislative requirements for political parties we will begin to see a shift from political parties as an outgrowth of ethnic movements to political parties with a more national outlook leading towards better representation.

However whether the discovery of oil in Turkana, one of the poorest places in the country, is a going to be a good thing for the country and the region remains to be seen. Intuitively one would theorize that the discovery of such large oil deposits, in one of the country’s poorest areas, is a good thing. The discovery of such large amounts of oil represents huge potential for the region’s and the country’s economic and political development and could give a “big push” to the economy through more investment in economic infrastructure and more rapid human capital development.

Having said that, its important to point out that economic growth is not an automatic effect of the discovery of mineral resource wealth. Look at the example of other resource rich countries on the continent. Governance i.e. the quality of regulation and the predictability of changes of regulations, anti-corruption policies, such as transparency and accountability in the public sector, will be important for effective natural resource management and will be critical determinants of the extent to which the growth effects of the discovery of oil will materialize. And quite frankly we’re not doing too well in any of those departments.

It has only been two days since the President announced the discovery of oil and there has already been a scandal surrounding the sale of land in Turkana. Yesterday the Daily Nation reported that in 2010 a Cabinet Minister’s firm sold a Turkana oil block for more than 800 million shillings. The Daily Nation reported the story as an example of how small firms might be using influence in the government to make hundreds of millions of shillings by trading in oil prospecting licences.

“The way the game is played is all too familiar: as a well connected speculator the first thing you will do is make sure that the obligations in the license are as minimal as possible and that the terms will not require you to spend too much money. With the license in your hands, you make sure that you are in a position to influence government officials to vary the terms as many times as possible as you wait for the opportunity to “flip”/sell the license at a handsome profit,” said the Daily Nation (full story here).

Such dealings will inevitably create scenarios in which oil licences can be allocated to inefficient/corrupt cronies of government regardless of performance criteria. Add this to the country’s fragile institutions and factionalized politics, and the resource gains from the discovery of oil may be lost. Of course the potential problems are not inherent in the discovery of oil, which in itself is a good thing. The issue is whether or not the resource is successfully managed and whether political structures and institutions will support sustained economic growth from the oil.

What are your thoughts on the discovery of oil in Turkana, blessing or curse?