President Uhuru Kenyatta. FILE PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP
President Uhuru Kenyatta is in an unenviable position right now. Damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t. From a purely practical point of view, I can sympathise with his “can’t pay won’t pay” resolve on the pay demands by school teachers.
He presents purely valid arguments. The country does not have the cash. The public sector wage bill has already spiralled out of control.
The courts made a mistake in awarding the increment without considering where the money would come from. Giving in to the pay demands would lead to copy-cat actions from other government employees. Et cetera, et cetera.
Nobody in all honesty would fault such cogent reasoning. I can bet that if he were president today, opposition leader Raila Odinga would pretty much echo the same position.
But then Mr Odinga is not the President and would hardly fail to take political advantage of a situation that has fallen into his lap.
Mr Kenyatta is the President and it is he who has to exercise responsible leadership and balance the books.
The problem, however, is that the President does not sound sincere. Save for the period he served as Finance Minister — and unsuccessfully tried to impose austerity measures with the directive that Cabinet ministers and other top civil servants do away with the Mercedes Benz limousines and be content with the more modest Volkswagen Passat — he has hardly been the paragon of frugality.
Since ascending to the hot seat in 2013, President Kenyatta has presided over a spendthrift regime that is obsessed with grandiose showcase projects.
The government gives little thought to the fact that the projects being pushed to project the success of the Jubilee coalition manifesto are financed by public money that must come out of the same pool that supplies many more pressing needs.
The massive borrowing and huge import bills, at a time when Kenya’s main foreign exchange earners are taking a battering, are directly responsible for the perilous state of the economy.
Even if some of these major infrastructure projects are providing thousands of jobs, directly contributing to economic growth, and on completion will be vital towards propelling Kenya to the next stage of development, the President seems to pay little heed to concerns that they are being used for massive theft of public money on the scale of Goldenberg.
All manner of wheeler-dealers boasting connections to State House are strutting around corrupting procurement processes, inflating bills, demanding kickbacks, supplying air, and generally looting the national coffers dry.
Anyone who raises the alarm over corrupt goings-on is branded an enemy of development or a tool of the Opposition.
A close look at some of those projects will reveal that mega-corruption of the Nyayo era scale is back in full swing.
The President has also been complicit in perpetual schemes by the parasitic classes to feather their own nests at the expense of their voters .
He has never raised a finger when MPs raise their own salaries and benefits. One does not hear from him protestations about sustainability, the ballooning wage bill, and the budget deficit.
He, therefore, does not have the moral authority to offer pious lectures on why the teacher’s demands cannot be met.
The President must first demonstrate his sincerity by moving to right all the wrongs above. He can impose, by Executive fiat, an austerity programme where all senior officials in his government must lead by example.
Drastic salary cuts and replacement of limousines and 4x4 behemoths with humble 1600cc salon cars would be a good start.
Cabinet secretaries and other fat cats can also be made to ditch the noisy, aggressive escort cars, move from exclusive suburbs to middle-class residential estates, and have their families make use of public schools and hospitals instead of expensive private facilities.
And, of course, all the thieves in his government must be sacked and prosecuted, and all the proceeds of corruption confiscated.
Maybe then he might deserve an ear.
And before I pen off, there is this little matter of options on court orders. The local magistrate has just made a ruling unfavourable to me. Obviously he was wrong, so I will not comply.
gaithomail@gmail.com. Twitter: @MachariaGaitho
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