BBI push ushers in season of blackmail, pork-barrel goodies

After ending a month-long strike called to push for adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) and an enhanced risk allowance, governors threatened to bolt out of the return-to-work deal for doctors and clinical officers, citing “huge monetary implications”.

Striking clinical officers and nurses, some of whom are still on strike in some counties, wanted a Sh30,000 monthly risk allowance, up from Sh3,850 for nurses and Sh3,000 for clinical officers, citing high risks of working during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The return-to-work deal did not specify whether the risk allowances had been enhanced, but the unions said the government had undertaken to address the issue of inadequate PPE and have dedicated centres for medical workers who would catch the virus in the line of duty.

It took just a few hours’ engagement with President Uhuru Kenyatta for Kenya’s ward representatives to get a Sh2 million car grant for each of the 2,237 MCAs, which will punch a Sh4.5 billion hole in the government coffers.

Though the ward reps have been demanding the car grant since the advent of devolution in 2014, President Kenyatta’s apparent willingness to open the public purse at a time he was popularising the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) has caught the attention of many Kenyans.

President Kenyatta’s move joins a growing list of instances in which the State has shown willingness to use taxpayers’ funds to curry favour with various groups critical in the passing of government-backed plans, like the BBI.

And the MCAs know their importance; the BBI Bill has to be passed by at least 24 county assemblies before it moves to the next stage.

If it fails to garner the required majority, the BBI process terminates there, giving the MCAs -  the new kids on the block, village millionaires calling the shots in the counties, and now, in the national government – the biggest say yet in the government agenda.

Besides the car grant, ward reps were also demanding a pension payable upon serving for two terms, mortgages and their salaries to be pegged at 40 per cent of what the governors earn – the same things that MPs get.

The ward reps seem to have reduced their demands to only the car grant, and want the government to convert the Sh2 million car loan they got into a grant.

The speakers of the county assemblies got a Sh4 million loan and, like the MCAs, they want it converted to a grant.

Narc Kenya leader Martha Karua, who has joined a lobby group that is campaigning against the BBI, said the car grant was nothing but bribery.

“The car grant for MCAs is nothing short of a quid pro quo by the President. It is bribery in return for them to close their eyes on contentious issues and pass an unnecessary document. The infamous BBI must no longer be made the preserve of a few in state-driven meetings,” Ms Karua said.

“It is quite clear that leaders of all persuasion intend to support the BBI only if their own interests are met and not those of the suffering masses who have no means of making a decent living because the economy is in the doldrums. We are bang in the middle of the second wave of a killer pandemic and the same leaders should be thinking of how to alleviate the pain instead of jostling for space at the high table,” veteran journalist Magesha Ngwiri summarised the ongoing season of blackmail in a Nation op-ed.

In a TV interview on Thursday, ODM leader Raila Odinga defended the MCAs, saying they should get the car grant even as he dismissed concerns that the timing of the President’s acceptance to the demand was suspect.

“I do not think any MCA will feel obligated to pass the BBI merely because the government gave them a car grant. I think the MCAs are going to vote for or against the document on the basis of their conviction,” Mr Odinga told Spice FM on Thursday morning.

Though governors have gone silent on their November 2020 BBI demands, with the season of give-and-take having been opened by President Kenyatta, there is no telling whether they will revive their demands to have their way with the Head of State.

The county bosses had last year demanded the removal of the collective responsibility in the counties, saying they should not be charged for acts of omission or commission by their staff.

In their November demands, the governors proposed the establishment of a pension fund for themselves, their deputies, county speakers and members of county assemblies and other county state officers as is the case at the national level.

This is bound to raise similar heat as the MCAs’ demands if the governors push on with it.

There is also the push by the pro-BBI leaders for the release of “facilitation funds” to market the BBI initiative.

This facilitation, which in political terms means money,  which comes with influence to organise voters to push the BBI Bill, will most likely see another purse-opening moment by the President.

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