Why poverty in Kenya is not by default but politically designed

Gladys Shollei, the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, announced herself by making the first declaration as soon as the UDA-Kenya Kwanza Alliance government came to power. 

According to her, one of the first things the new government would do was to abolish tea and mandazi in meetings to save money.

I am with her up to a certain point: She is right to suggest that a lot of money is spent on snacks and lunches. 

Were all the money used to throw unnecessary lavish meetings saved, we could use it to support public institutions starved of money. It is imprudent to spend a fortune on lunches at meetings that never end.

Meetings in government offices are meetings to organise another meeting. 

The lunches are enticing and form an eating frenzy with little important solutions derived from most of them.

It is just like the recent MCA retreats held in Mombasa by various counties. Governors struggled to find quorums for important county discussions but they had more people turn up at the beach resorts to frolic and feast.

Where I disagree with Gladys is where she has gone silent as another wasteful plan is mooted by UDA.

I believe if her party is in power to save money, she should also have commented or challenged the idea of having elected leaders nominated to the positions of Cabinet secretaries. 

If the serving MPs win Cabinet slots, it will trigger by-elections in the country at an astronomical cost to the taxpayers.

The unplanned expenses come at a very difficult time with the economy in dire shape and the cost of living going up.

There are many other Kenyans who are, perhaps, even more, qualified and can be appointed as CSs with minimal cost to the taxpayers.

UDA may be hell-bent on showing loyalty to its MPs and reserving ministerial posts for them but they deliberately overlooked the ensuing huge expenses for the by-elections.

This is sheer impunity and calculation by UDA politicians. It has little to do with their narrative of serving the ‘hustlers’.

Either way, the MPs were not going to lose: They were assured of a seat in Parliament if UDA lost but still expect to hold CS posts as politicians if they won.

Which is against the Constitution. This is a slow start of the erosion of the Constitution.

Presidential motorcades

If the government is, indeed, serious about saving money, they could break away from the tradition of spending billions of shillings on presidential motorcades too.

The cost of escorting the President in Kenya and, indeed, Africa is huge compared to Western countries. 

The contrast between the number of escorts used by the UK’s Royal Family and the Prime Minister was very stark when, recently, the latter went to meet the Queen and when the royals were being driven around.

They both had just a couple of cars and outriders, compared to the long entourage and motorcades that followed President William Ruto to State House after his inauguration and during most of his trips in and out of it. 

We still have ministers and other senior officials using more vehicles and staff to see off the President and receive him at the airport—as if his driver doesn’t know the way to the airport and State House.

That is wastage, which can be curbed to save the country money. No wonder, countries such as the UK see the waste of money by African leaders on themselves and decide it is better to cut off aid.

It doesn’t make sense for donor countries to help people whose leaders refuse to help them.

Poverty in Africa is less about a state of mind and more about a political creation.

The amount of money lost through corruption among politicians is enough to get many Kenyans out of poverty if the taxes were utilised for the benefit of the citizens.

As the current Parliament has proved, Kenyan politicians aim to loot the coffers first before they think of serving the people. 

All the fight over expensive cars, spouses’ private insurance and cheap loans on top of what they steal through fake tenders is proof of their greed.

The same politicians then go bowl in hand begging for aid from the West, which they gobble as well. How does a country like Kenya cry about poverty when its leaders portray a life of opulence and wastage to the rest of the world?

Like many of our social problems, poverty in Kenya is politically engineered. It is poverty by design and not by default. The mindset that needs changing is that of politicians.

Therefore, as UDA plans to fight mandazi expenditure, they should also attack expenses incurred in giving the politicians lifestyles that they ‘wish’ to live by using the taxpayers’ money. 

Cutbacks must start with politicians. Most of Kenya’s wealth is used by just 0.5 per cent of the population, comprising politicians, and the rest of the population. That is not the way to end poverty.

Ms Guyo is a legal researcher. [email protected]. @kdiguyo