By Alberto Nyakundi Amenya BananaPeddler
Adolf Hitler said: “There is a better chance of seeing a camel pass through the eye of a needle than of seeing a great man ‘discovered’ through an election” when he said this, he had our President in mind.
You see, the problem with Kenya is in the hands of Kenyans living in Kenya. Here, corruption is a metastasized cancer that has already eaten deeper into the fabric of the system. It is an open secret that corruption is the only factor that abjectly unites our leaders. When it comes to money, our leaders are conjoined like the Siamese twins. Is this what power can do to otherwise sensible leaders? How would posterity remember these children of corruption? Shame!
What happened to Senate Deputy Speaker Professor Kithure Kindiki was regrettable. It proved that just like the National Assembly, our Senate has long sold its soul to the devil. Whatever bribe they received to humiliate a Scholarly man of Prof. Kithure standing, history shall be unkind to them someday.
These greedy Senators must know that it is better to have integrity than to have money from questionable sources. Importantly, they should be reminded that every sin they commit now, they will pay for it both in this world and in the other world.
Senate as an arm of government must eschew from genuflecting before the Presidency. Its sheer composition presupposes that the Upper House be harbingers of logic, reason, wisdom and rationality. Instead, these people have become pawns in the hands of the executive.
The refusal by the Senate to activate its oversight functions has bred monumental tyranny, impunity and corruption in the Presidency. As a result, President Uhuru feels all-powerful. He is deploying his powers inordinately to oust progressive government officials at will.
The events that have since defined the character of the Senate after ousting Prof. Kindiki and Murkomen have left governance eggheads pondering difficult questions. What happened at the senate is an illusion that must not be entertained by any right thinking human.
As it is today, our parliament is only being tolerated instead of being respected by the executive as a necessary evil. Our parliament only has its say but the executive has its way. By sidestepping its mandate succumbing to the pressure from the executive and ousting Prof. Kindiki, the senate asphyxiated itself.
Where are the otherwise checks and balances as envisaged in our constitution in the principle of Separation of Powers? In any democracy, if parliament becomes a sellout, it’s bye-bye to the freedom of the plebeians because these are the people who are supposed to represent the grass roots.
Parliamentarians are supposed to hold the presidency accountable to the people. Otherwise, who do we expect to checkmate the executive when the institution mandated to do so have gone to bed with the same executive?
When will this President stop grandstanding and inconsequential cerebral outpouring while armchair critics wiggle their filthy noses? Why is he deploying excessive powers to politically annihilate distinguished men of impeccable morals like professor Kindiki, but turn a blind eye on his friends who go prodigal with our commonwealth?
Because I am running out of space, I’ll rush my argument. By concluding that our parliament has, just like the Biblical Esau, sold its democratic rights to the executive. If I had the powers, none of them would find their way back in the hallowed chambers in 2022.
These children of corruption have ripped the common Mwananchi off by abdicating their sacred duty which is supposed to be holding the government accountable. They are all after aggrandizing filthy lucre. Their place, let another take. The national leaky bucket where these they are feeding from has a thousand holes but do they care?
But Kenyans are special humans because we always adapt to whatever situation life brings our way.
Albertamenya@yahoo.com
(The writer sells Bananas in the streets of Kisii Town)
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