A yardstick for rating political leaders’ work
A parliamentarian’s performance is their level and value of participation in debates and oversight sessions.
What you need to know:
- The ignorant public has been bantered with comical lies of imaginary promises by both serving and aspiring political leaders of how they will revolutionise their lives.
- Evidently, the majority of the Kenyan public is ill-informed on the role of political leaders as stipulated in the Constitution and other relevant laws.
- It is imperative that the public be enlightened on the role of each of the three arms of government and their deliverables.
As we approach the home stretch of this electioneering period, politicians are putting their best foot forward on how to convince electorates to vote them in—or re-elect them.
The ignorant public has been bantered with comical lies of imaginary promises by both serving and aspiring political leaders of how they will revolutionise their lives.
Evidently, the majority of the Kenyan public is ill-informed on the role of political leaders as stipulated in the Constitution and other relevant laws.
It is imperative that the public be enlightened on the role of each of the three arms of government and their deliverables.
For the Executive arm, the government prepares a five-year Medium-Term Plan derived from Kenya Vision 2030, the blueprint which outlines the objectives, goals, outcomes and indicators thereof.
Therefore, the MTP provides a yardstick to measure the performance of the Executive and is drilled down to deliverables by individual actors—Cabinet secretaries, principal secretaries and directors.
The Judiciary, whose mandate is to dispense justice, has blueprints and a strategic plan centred on efficient and effective delivery of justice and whose overall indicator is the turnaround of court cases, which can be cascaded down to the performance of an individual judge or magistrate.
The Legislature enacts laws and oversights the Executive.
In the assemblies, bills are usually presented by the Executive for scrutiny and debate. It is expected that members shall articulate well-researched issues that enrich debate to ensure that the laws passed are for the good of the nation.
Great public interest
Oversight is mostly done through parliamentary select committees.
Therefore, a parliamentarian’s performance is their level and value of participation in debates and oversight sessions.
Members who table private bills and raise private motions of great public interest are outstanding.
On the “ground”, a political leader should provide persuasive leadership to their constituents to constructively transform their lives.
It’s misleading for a politician to use CDF projects as a measure of performance.
For the record, activities of the fund are independently run by a gazetted committee and managed by an officer employed by the CDF Board.
Funds are equally allocated to all the 290 constituencies and no politician can claim to have pushed for more funds for their area.
The MP’s role is to mobilise residents to identify their development needs and push for the implementation of the set projects.
This background of a parliamentarian’s role puts into perspective the parameters that voters should use to gauge a political leader—that is, prolific debater, number of private motions and bills tabled or oversight skills.
Let the voters arm themselves with an accountability tool to judge wisely while they cast their ballot on August 9. Vote wisely!
Mr Mwinamo is an auditor. [email protected].
