Huge perks to leaders a rip-off

It really is not our problem as the taxpayers that former politicians end up poor. Excuse me if you think I am being cruel. I am not. I just feel insulted by people who perfected driving half the population into poverty after misusing CDF budgets, looted to their hearts’ content and now have the guts to call themselves poor!

Narcissism could not come any better than millionaires who waste their time and money while in power and then turn to the very people they starve to squeeze their last penny from them as retirement perks. Now our cabinet, which is also paid handsomely, ‘envisages’ poverty too during retirement and is allegedly asking for review of send-off perks.

Send-off packages and homecoming parties are most ridiculous of concepts that only a vain and callous nation can come up with. Leaders should have known they would need money for retirement when they spent a massive budget on ‘homecoming’ parties in the first place. How does one even come to a home he came from?

Retirement packages, send-off packages, medical insurance ... these are things that senior government officials and politicians could easily afford from their huge salaries. The leaders who are highly paid are the ones who unashamedly make silly financial demands on a country grappling with massive unemployment, a poor healthcare system, rundown public schools and homelessness.

Where is your humanity?

The many politicians languishing in poverty should have been the last to starve. What did they do with their time and money while in government? I will tell you. Most of them live beyond their means. They blame the gonya gonya (handouts) that they give to their constituents for their brokeness. But that is small change compared to their salary; just an excuse to demand for more allowances.

When leaders take a huge loan to build a mansion for show, marry the obligatory five wives and father 50 children, they did not ask the taxpayer for advice. Let them save for your luxury lifestyle.

Many ex-politicians who claim to live in poverty and decry poor health in their retirement did zilch to improve healthcare services while in office. They did not care, because they could get medical cover, which they now realise was just a flitting concept.

In fact, one cruel and unjust thing we do is offer medical cover to the very people who embezzle funds meant for healthcare. They do not deserve it. Neither does it impress responsibility on leaders to do their job. In a just society, no poor taxpayer, with no healthcare, should pay for medical cover for the rich!

Bought for egotism

Our big people would rather buy bigger cars while a simple one will do. They fail to build roads because they are blinded by their four-wheel-drive cars — again bought for egotism. They only remember the taxpayer was footing their mileage allowance and fuel when they are out of a job. Then they discover cars do not run on porridge and tyres cost an arm and a leg.

Kenyans are yet to fully experience the true value of all the perks offered to politicians and senior government officials. The huge amount paid to people who have really caused a lot of misery to the masses is unjustifiable and obscene. It has made leaders get out of touch with reality. They now feel so entitled that they think taxpayers’ money is theirs for the taking.

Every citizen’s needs are just as important as those of the leaders. By prioritising the needs of those in leadership positions, we have harmed our society and damaged key institutions along the way. Investing in roads, hospitals, affordable homes, schools, industries and water is to everyone’s benefit. You build a nation by creating opportunities for all, not just select few.

The perks we throw about for those in leadership have created salt-flake leaders who now find it hard to survive in the real world lest they melt. They do not want the gravy train to stop, even in retirement, because we let them believe they can continue to make merry at our expense. But it must now be terminally retired to save the country from further cannibalism.

Social injustice

If there is any anomaly and social injustice to be ameliorated in the country, it is that of unlimited allowances that we dish out to people who qualify the least for them. We should all just get a lumpsum salary, equitably distributed. It is our responsibility to stretch that salary to afford us the life we want. Leaders who end up poor by living beyond their means should not attract any sympathy. Not an iota of it.

If ordinary people save the little wages they earn and manage their lives, I fail to see why leaders who are paid huge salaries cannot manage theirs. My unsolicited advice to our leaders is this: Live within your means, save for your second wife, medical cover, pension and funeral for your own pride.

Behaving like a hyena is not honourable at all.

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