Constitution

MPs Violating Article 103 of the Constitution By Stealing From Hunger Stricken Kenyans

BY Soko Directory Team · June 14, 2017 06:06 am

By Juma Fredrick

Someone said that there are two tribes in Kenya; the filthy rich and the poverty stricken Kenyans. The narrative, however, seems to have long changed, paving the way to a new crop of two major tribes in the country; the politicians and the common mwananchi.

For a very long time, the gap between the politician and the common man has been widening with the real definition of who a leader is diminishing with each passing day. In this country, a Member of Parliament of a Senator is that individual who sweats vigorously to eat that which does not belong to him. In other words, he is that individual who eats to sweat that which is not his as those who sweat to eat watch in despair.

The campaigns for the next general elections are already on. The politicians, most of which will kiss goodbye the doors of parliament are traversing the country, calling themselves all manner of sweet names and describing themselves with all manner of good adjectives in an effort to try and convince Kenyans (who are known to have the shortest memory in the world) to vote for them.

As Kenyans dance to the tune of the campaigning politicians, they are failing to realize that the current Members of Parliament are plotting to loot them dry even as they prepare to face the forthcoming general elections on the August 8^th, 2017. Kenyans have not realized that the current Members of Parliament are demanding for more than 36 million shillings each, all totaling to more than 3.3 billion shillings for doing nothing at all. According to them, the elections are coming early and since their term was to expire later in 2018, they should be paid. Let us go through this slowly, MPs want to be paid 36 million shillings each for not being in parliament. Can you imagine that?

What does the supreme law of the land say about such greedy leaders that we have? Let us turn to the constitution. Article 103(1) (b) of the Constitution of the land is very clear on this issue and if the law is to be respected, then these thieves will not have their way as we watch in silence. Article 103 (1) (b) states, if, during any session of Parliament, the member (Parliament/Senate) is absent from eight sittings of the relevant House without permission, in writing, from the Speaker, and is unable to offer a satisfactory explanation for the absence of the relevant Committee; Members of Parliament/ (including Senate) will be deemed to have vacated office if they have missed more than 8 sittings and the law demands that those that have missed 8 sitting be required to surrender the money they have collected and will not be entitled to gratuity of any form or pension.

The Constitution of Kenya is the supreme law. This means that there is no other law in the country that can be above the constitution. The article stated above, clearly indicates that a Member of Parliament or Senate should only be paid for work done. For MPs to demand to be paid for more than eight sessions they will be out of the house is going against the same supreme law that we fought so hard to have. The constitution says that a Member who will miss eight consecutive sessions will be deemed to have vacated office if they have missed more than 8 sittings and the law demands that those that have missed 8 sitting be required to surrender the money they have collected and will not be entitled to the gratuity of any form or pension.

Are we then, having read the Constitution, which we fought for and got, going to let our leader urinate on it and steal from us as we keep silent? Are we going to stand and cheer them on, encouraging them to loot our coffers dry before the next general elections? Do you know who is going to pay for that money if the greedy hungry politicians had their way? That money is going to come from us, our pockets, our taxes, #ourmoney. Are we going to let them take away our money as we sit back and suffer in silence? Are we going to let them steal from us what is rightfully ours? Already Kenya is struggling with a huge debt, amounting to 4 trillion shillings, the largest in history. Inflation has been rising with each coming day with all the burden being sheltered by the common man in the streets.

Dear Kenyans, do you realize that we cannot even afford a packet of Unga? The UNGA that has always been our stable food for ages, we can no longer afford. We are hunger stricken, poverty stricken and everything evil struck but instead of looking for solutions to these problems, our politicians want to make it more difficult for us by stealing the little we already have.

Dear Kenyans, ask yourselves, how cognizant are we about claims made by our leaders? I mean, these are our taxes, that we work hard to pay yet they claim the money without meeting the needed requirements. Do we know our rights? Do we know our Constitution?

As a Kenyan, in your office, can you claim mileage or accommodation or any form of refund if you haven’t met the required set standards? Clearly not, but then, why do we let our duly elected leaders get away with it? Is it because the money they want is not ours? Absolutely not. It is our money, our taxes, and our sweat. The law is very clear and any citizen can enforce it. Question is, why aren’t we doing it or is it because we don’t care about our taxes? Or are we such thieves ourselves that we keep on tolerating our fellow thieves?

How do you say you are a representative of people YET you have missed consecutive sittings in Parliament where you are meant to articulate their issues? So how are you representing them? Or your role is simply to make money and continue looting via loopholes that exist in the law?

The saddening part is, this legal thief wants a higher office. If he can’t meet the demands of the current office, how shall he meet the demands of this other office that are 1000 times more? Why are we being taken for a ride like we are fools? Kenyans, it is time you opened your eyes. Stop having the memory of a warthog. Let us see the thief of who he is. Let us vet them and let us teach them a lesson.

About Soko Directory Team

Soko Directory is a Financial and Markets digital portal that tracks brands, listed firms on the NSE, SMEs and trend setters in the markets eco-system. Find us on Facebook: facebook.com/SokoDirectory and on Twitter: twitter.com/SokoDirectory