Will this 13th Parliament help debunk myth?
MPs take the oath of office at the National Assembly on September 8, 2022. The members of the 13th Parliament started on a rather sour note: Their first order of business was to deliberate on how to get back the allowances that the SRC had scrapped.
What you need to know:
- The members of the 13th Parliament started on a rather sour note: Their first order of business was to deliberate on how to get back the allowances that the Salaries and Remuneration Commission had scrapped.
- Nothing really about how to bring down the high cost of living choking the citizenry.
- Apparently, each and every one of them knew what they were going to earn before joining parliament. Nobody was dragged or coerced to join the race to become an MP.
When J. M. Kariuki joined the Third Parliament as Nyandarua North MP in 1974, he set his goals very high.
One was to dismantle the widely held perception that the machinery called government was there to create wealth for only 10 millionaires.
He made it clear that he’d be there for the 10 million beggars too.
That did not go down well with some people, who thought he had come to dismantle the status quo. He would pay with his life on March 2, 1975.
That’s a big contradiction to the members of the 13th Parliament. They have started on a rather sour note: Their first order of business was to deliberate on how to get back the allowances that the Salaries and Remuneration Commission had scrapped.
The now aptly nicknamed “Papa wa Roma” (Pope of Rome), National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetang’ula, has assured them that they will enjoy their perks like in the past.
Nothing really about how to bring down the high cost of living choking the citizenry.
Apparently, each and every one of them knew what they were going to earn before joining parliament. Nobody was dragged or coerced to join the race to become an MP.
The Supreme Court, under Chief Justice Martha Koome, had dealt a fatal blow to CDF and declared it illegal just before the election.
The same MPs had made it a cash cow, anyway. Never mind that this was not the noble intention of then-Ol Kalou MP Muriuki Karue, the architect of CDF, in the Ninth Parliament. Now they want to revive it.
Is there anyone really in this world who applies for a job whose salary is not specified beforehand?
Lest they didn’t know, the number 13 is associated with all known and unknown superstitions. It is called triskaidekaphobia: The extreme fear of 13.
It was a by sheer coincidence that the President was also inaugurated on September 13. Biblically, Judas Iscariot, who would betray Jesus, was the 13th guest on the night of crucifixion.
Many skyscrapers the world over are built without the 13th floor due to this superstition.
Otis Elevators, builders of elevators all over the world, helped popularise and spread this myth by manufacturing lifts that don’t stop at Number 13.
Even in Nigeria, their charismatic military leader and fourth president, Murtallah Mohammed, was assassinated on February 13, 1976. That helped to entrench the superstitious myth in the country.
Strangely, even at the height of its fame, the organisers of Safari Rally (later Marlboro Safari Rally) avoided allocating Car Number 13. No driver wanted it.
We, therefore, had Car Number. 11, 12 and then 14. This was the case too, in this and last year’s World Rally Championship (WRC) Kenya edition rally that was held in Naivasha. Number 13 was conspicuously missing from the starting lineup.
It was also shunned in Formula 1 motor racing.
The burden of debunking the age-old fear of number 13 now falls with our newly elected MPs—by doing everything that is good for humanity and Kenyans. If not, history will judge them harshly.
Mr Kamau is a human resource management practitioner and author. [email protected].
