OPEN LETTER TO C S ROTICH

8th February 2017

OPEN LETTER TO CS ROTICH

Dear Hon Rotich,

Happy New Year!!I will not bore you with a lot of trite and meaningless dialogue so I'll just cut to the chase.

This year seems to have kicked off to a rather bad start for Kenya. What with the drought affecting millions of Kenyans including the pastoralists and their livestock around the country, the recent terrorist attack on our brave soldiers in Somalia, the ongoing doctor’s strike that seems to be coming to an end thanks to the intervention of the senate, the ongoing lecturers strike with students coming out in solidarity rather late in the day with their lecturers, the lack of food security for a starving populace etc.

It is also the season when the IEBC is making last ditch efforts to encourage Kenyans to come out in large numbers to register as voters as their elected leaders similarly plead with the same voters (that they have studiously ignored for the last five years) with loud hailers and at public rallies to come out to register and vote for them in the forthcoming general elections.

I know all these issues demand money…….lots and lots of money…....which the country can ill afford at the moment and I am not even going to talk about the endemic corruption that we always read about that is depleting the national coffers at an alarming rate.

I am also aware that my one month old granddaughter has also inherited a debt of Kshs. 90,000.00 like hundreds of other babies recently born whose only crime is to be born a Kenyan just to paint the picture of just how dire the situation is, and her debt is unlikely to reduce even as other babies are born in future at the rate with which this government is borrowing to fund its recurrent and development expenditure something that doesn't sit very well with me for obvious reasons!

But what has got my goat (pardon the very British expression but my English teacher in high school was a prim and proper school ma’am who would turn up her nose if the inflection or the accent of her beloved mother tongue wasn’t correct) is the obnoxious and sickening demand by our legislators who ensured that the new constitution enabled them to walk away with a handsome gratuity of Kshs. 11 Million at the end of their 5 year term which they are now turning their noses up against!

In the face of insurmountable public debts (remember my one month old debt ridden granddaughter?) even the gratuity that the constitution allows the legislators is a really bad joke and a very tasteless joke at that which is in pure bad faith.

A total stranger coming to the country for the first time would wonder if these are same legislators he reads about and watches on Al Jazeera when they are decrying the challenges that their constituents face as drought ravages the country and demanding that the government make immediate drought mitigation measures to cushion the starving populace and their animals. He would be shrugging his shoulders in disgust at the sheer hypocrisy exhibited by these 416 individuals. Bwana CS, my take is that if through some oversight your office bows to pressure from these cabal of individuals to discuss a higher package than what in the opinion of many is a done deal then God help this country because that shall be the catalyst that is likely to propel this country to failed state status because the hullabaloo will make Al Ade look like a kindergarten play pen.

Why do I say this? If your office gives in to this sloth and avarice from the (dis)honorable members who are only united when fighting for their ‘tumbos’ and they get what they are clamoring for all the MCA’s in the 47 county assemblies will demand a similar send of package and we are talking about thousands of individuals serving in various county assemblies across the country. Their argument will be after all haven’t they also played their part in leadership (however slovenly) under the devolved system of government? All public servants will also in all likelihood jump onto the bandwagon and demand an increase in their salaries because a government kowtowing to the threats of a few is likely to also bow to the threats of many.

Sir, you must accordingly do whatever is in your powers to deny them what is not rightfully theirs because this shall cause a tidal wave of resentment that shall eventually sweep all of you technocrats along with the legislators out of your cushy offices. The more pressing demands on our meager resources are in any case clearly visible to anyone with a modicum of civic duty towards its people.

Sir, with due humility you are damned if you do and you are damned if you don’t but you will need to consider the plight of the majority at the expense of the minority in this Animal Farm called Kenya. "Hakuna pesa" however hackneyed a phrase should be your stock answer to the demands for gratuity payments.

It is also my take that the ruling coalition should also make this the defining moment of their first 5 year term and ask their coalition partners in Parliament and Senate to reject in toto this gratuity payment nonsense so as to show solidarity with the suffering citizenry and acknowledge that the country cannot afford to pay them a sum of Kshs. 4.5 Billion at present but will do so when the financial position of the country improves!!

If the opposition then foolishly decides to fight for the gratuity payment as a right then they shall have only have themselves to blame for not putting the country first and face an imminent and epic loss of face and votes in August 2017. After all an opposition is supposed to fight whatever the government position is if recent past issues are anything to go by!!

I for one shall NOT vote in anyone who received a cent of this gratuity payment because they will have passed the message that they don’t care about the welfare of Kenya as a country!!

Yours sincerely and a concerned Kenyan Citizen

Joe W M - a.k.a Joe-WonderingAllowed