MP should rethink his public holidays bill

The amendment bill to restructure public holidays proposed by Kiambu Senator Karungo wa Thang’wa is not good for a struggling economy such as Kenya’s.

In his proposal, Mr Thang’wa cites and, rightly so, the man-hours which are lost and lack of focus when a public holiday falls on, say, a Tuesday. He argues that Monday is wasted as people are psyched and all set for Tuesday.

It’s the same case when a holiday falls on a Thursday. You break off on Thursday, reappear at work on Friday and then the weekend begins. 

He prays that if a holiday falls on a Tuesday, Monday should be declared a holiday and, should it fall on a Thursday, Friday is declared a holiday.

Kenya has enough public holidays and needs no more. In any case, we should merge the existing ones or do away with some of them. But since most of them have a national historical connotation, we can spare them for posterity. 

How about fixing these holidays on specific days? Say, for example, Huduma Day will be celebrated every second Friday of October, Mashujaa Day on the third Friday of October and so on.

In the United States, they have some important public holidays which are celebrated on some specific days. For example, Memorial Day, where Americans celebrate and mourn their soldiers who served in the revolution and missions abroad between 1868 and 1970, is celebrated on the last Sunday of May. 

The third Monday of January is set aside for celebrating and honouring the great civil rights activist, Dr Martin Luther King, Jr.

It’s possible to put these holidays on specific days so long as the history associated with them won’t change. However, international holidays should be allowed to remain synchronised.

Kenya needs every minute and every second because we have private and public, local and international debts to pay. Otherwise, we don’t want to have more holidays than productive days in the calendar.

Joe Mungai, Washington State, USA