RESPONSE BY THE PARTNERSHIP FOR CHANGE TO THE SPEECH BY HIS EXCELLENCY HON. MWAI KIBAKI, C.G.H., M.P., PRESIDENT AND COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE ARMED FORCES OF THE REPUBLIC OF KENYA DURING THE STATE OPENING OF THE THIRD SESSION OF THE TENTH PARLIAMENT AT PARLIAMENT BUILDINGS NAIROBI 21ST APRIL, 2009
Apr 28th, 2009 by Mars Group Kenya
It is well and good that Vision 2030 remains our blueprint but it would be wrong to assume that the plan is more important than the people whose lives the plan is meant to improve. Discussions with our fellow Kenyans and particularly the youth tell us that 2030 as a vision is unreal to them. They look for news and plans for today – 2009 – and tomorrow and the day after that. They cannot wait until 2030 to have jobs or to eat – let alone until the end of this year.
Desperation is setting in as Kenyans see a political elite consumed by its own power struggles and personal comfort. They look at the ostentatious consumption of their elected representatives, and watch them aghast on live television – for those who have television – or listen to the radio broadcasts and hear members of Parliament waste days at a time on nothing meaningful such as who will be the leader of government business. Last week Kenyans watched members of parliament for 3 days argue about this point and fail to establish a house business committee.
Kenyans are telling their members of Parliament that the first 2 sessions of the 10th parliament are regarded to have been wasted. Agenda 1 was to restore civil and political liberties to the people, to disarm militia, to stop intra citizen violence, and to end official repression – what the people are saying to Parliament is that this did not happen.
Kenyans will need to see during this session concrete action taken to ensure that militia and gang activity is curtailed and law and order reestablished. In the Mathira massacre we also saw that the police was condoning the establishment of vigilante armed groups which it appears have also turned rogue. It is incidents such as these where law enforcers turn a blind eye to criminal activity which give the country the image of an insecure country and which affects our economy.
But having said all that this country and the grand coalition government have not addressed the issues raised by the UN special rapporteur on extra judicial killings Dr. Philip Alston, has not embarked on any serious investigation of the murders of two prominent human rights defenders Oscar Kingara and GPO Oulu, or indeed hundreds of other suspicious deaths and disappearances related to police activity.
There can be no hope of economic recovery if Kenya allows the fixing of the opinion expressed by prof. Alston that the police are a law unto themselves killing with abandon. Tourists do not favour war zones. This session, the grand coalition government needs to satisfy Kenyans through Parliament that it has a plan to end official impunity and to restore the rule of law.
Agenda 2 was to immediately resettle the IDPs and to provide humanitarian assistance to Kenyans in immediate need – out there they are saying IDPs are still in the camps. Even though the president says 90% have been resettled – citizens are asking in what circumstances have they been resettled – on the fringes of national parks? At points have they been resettled where there are no common services, water or sewage?
The government needs to explain to Parliament and to the people why it has been unable to attract substantive support for its resettlement programme, because the perception is that the government has failed to attract such support because it is viewed as being corrupt and untrustworthy. And if we are honest that perception is very much grounded in how politicians have conducted business as a grand coalition – maize – triton – Anglo leasing in the budget – you name it we have seen it. There actually is enough.
Ken Ren fertiliser payments to Bawag bank of Austria amounted to over two hundred million shillings this year yet Parliament has never had a proper explanation as to why we as a country are sending money to a European bank for a fertiliser factory we do not have – during this session such an explanation must be provided. During the budget speech the minister for finance told Parliament that Kenya Uganda and Tanzania will build a fertilizer factory any update on this from the minister of finance will be appreciated.
The President decried the economic impact of the global financial crisis on Kenya properly connecting our fortunes with changes in international demand for what we have on offer to the world. But he stopped short of connecting international demand with the conduct of our Government. Tourism depends on international demand yet the government has allowed its disunity to suggest that we do not have an effective government which can provide security to its people let alone tourists. On the very day the president delivered his speech 29 people were murdered in Mathira in what is properly called a massacre. Tragically it appears that they were murdered by a proscribed sect which the Prime Minister once said he would negotiate with. Negotiation with terrorist bodies is not the best policy but the question should be answered: did the government pursue this line and did it have any success?
Agenda 3 appears to be the only part of the national accord which attracts the interest of the members of Parliament – hence MP’s can happily spend weeks on recess forming themselves into groups rather than consulting their constituents. Even so, agenda 3 was important for the country. Because there was no undisputed winner of the election it was necessary that a power sharing agreement be reached – but a year later to the country it is obvious that there has not been good faith in effecting this agreement. The calls for a fresh election to determine who should form a new government are mounting and opinion polls show that the majority of Kenyans favour a fresh ballot.
So our admonition to Members of Parliament is that this third session is the last chance motel of many of their political careers – Members of Parliament can choose to continue to bicker or they can choose to fulfill the only duty they actually have – a duty higher than political party – the duty to their constituents. This duty is to represent them in Parliament without fear or favour by demanding executive accountability, to watch where their tax money goes, to uphold their constitutional right to have a voice in Parliament through their members of the Kenyan parliament.
Members of Parliament are enjoined by the constitution to implement the national accord, and agenda 4 goes to the heart of the accord. These are the so called long term issues but in fact they are today issues. Kenyans have not attained the agenda 4 ideals in 46 years – an end to mass poverty and inequality, an end to youth unemployment, respect for the rule of law and punishment of grievous human rights crimes and economic crimes. The National Accord represented an opportunity, which is probably now gone, to attain these goals. Certainly, the President’s speech was devoid of serious exposition on how these 46 year old problems will be ended by his coalition government’s action. Kazi Kwa Vijana is definitely not sufficient, and pales in comparison with the figures lost annually through waste and corruption.
A country with serious problems needs serious answers and serious people to provide them. Parliament will forever stand condemned if it doesn’t seize its historical opportunity to do the right things by the Kenyan people who want an effective government – made up of an executive that has a serious plan for development of the country and is prudent with public money and secures our borders, a parliament that checks the executive and makes laws for the welfare and just government of Kenyan women and men and children, and a judiciary that checks the legislature and the executive by giving Kenyans access to it to protection from the excesses of the legislative and executive branch.
That is the real Constitution of Kenya and all these arms of government exist only for the purpose of securing the rights of individual Kenyans, not tribes, to life, liberty, property, and freedom of association, conscience, assembly, movement and expression. There is no other purpose for government or indeed this parliament, and it will be bad news for those who think they can continue to ignore these truths.
The Kenyan people have understood this and are watching Parliament closely.
Whereas I agree with most of the facts and sentiments you have ably expressed, my position is that our way forward lies in having a HBC that is driven by doves and not hawks – by people who are able to move forward a few yards even if we want to move several miles – and not those hell bent on mark timing where they are.
The HBC, depending on its leadership, may move us forward. Under Kibaki and his
choice of Kalonzo – we expect nothing. At least the PM can react to people pressure – Kibaki and his ilk of stinking rich and corrupt moguls see nothing, hear nothing, will do nothing! Can you believe we have CIC who cannot stop a mob from killing fellow citizens, cannot react to an invasion by Uganda, cannot comment on some religious fanatics out to annex part of the country – and only so willing to publicly portray a FOUL MOOD when prodded to so doing by lioness like wife – wasting tax payers money on a live news conference?
I think the three or four days parliament wasted in saying no to Kibaki – Kalonzo was more worth it than all efforts and monies being thrown around for development.
Sorting out the HBC issue is a first step at a propoer diagnosis of what ails Kenya – of course we are still far