What MPs ought to do

With just under a year to go before the General Election, scheduled for next August, there is still some work for the elected leaders to do to stamp their mark on the national arena.

For the National Assembly, quite pivotal will be the session that resumed yesterday. Being the second last session before the elections, it will definitely be carried out amid heightened campaigns and machinations by the political parties and leaders to gain advantage ahead of the major race. The members of the 12th Parliament will be keen to demonstrate that they have done enough to deserve another mandate.

The august House will be racing against time to pass pending Bills as the MPs try to introduce new legislation to catch the voters’ eye amid tough challenges. The people’s suffering has been worsened by the Covid-19 pandemic, which has ravaged all the sectors of the economy. The recent hefty fuel price increases have sparked hue and cry across the country.

The MPs and other leaders can also not ignore the raging drought in the arid and semi-arid regions. They can’t just sit back after President Kenyatta declared the crisis a national disaster. The burden falls squarely on the government’s shoulders, and on the local leaders’. Although charity begins at home, this is a national crisis and, therefore, every leader must help to prevent deaths from hunger and starvation.

It will also be interesting to see how the MPs will use this session to put in place some of the changes that would have been made had the BBI succeeded. There is a proposed Bill to create the position of prime minister and two deputies to expand the Executive and accommodate more leaders to ease the cut-throat competition at the top.

But at the core of all this must be the interest of the majority of Kenyans, whom all these leaders are elected to serve.