Re: MPS SHOULD EARN TEN TIMES THE SALARY OF THE LOWEST EARNING CIVIL SERVANT

I am in full agreement as well that our MPs are paid alot of money for doing very little. I am also in full agreement that the power to increase their pay, must be removed from the control of the MPs themselves, and vested elsewhere.

But I am convinced that the latest move to increase the pay of MPs was a government ploy to paint the MPs as greedy and of no core value to Kenyans. This was a government conspiracy.

How come the AG who was supposed to move the motion went conveniently missing at the last minute? How come the government ministers were all ready to condenm this greed by MPs, as if they were not MPs themselves?

This is a campaign year, and the government must find ways and means of hitting at the change agents in parliament. What could be better than to come up with a non existent motion, fail to present it, and then hit the roofs with their hollier than thou antics?

I refused to be such hood winked, and I still refuse to believe that the government is good in their defence of their creation.

Alot can be said about the issues raised by my friend Orina. I really sympathise with him and his colleagues who were clobered by the police for exercising their democratic rights to demonstrate. And I agree with him on the issue of pay for MPs.

But looking into history, I am not convinced. All these guys who want to go to parliament want that big money. They do not want to be MPs to do something different. In 1992, we had a team that we thought could bring change. They fought for the Kenyan course, and we thought that they were all with us.

But come 2002 when they got power, I could not believe that Kiraitu Murungi was the same one of 1992. Paul Mwite changed. Kibutha Kibwana, the little said of him the better. Even the men of God who had so vilified Moi, people like Mutava Musyimi, Ndingi Mwana a Nzeki, all went to bed with the government.

The only man who remained true to the Kenyan cause was Raila Odinga. Even in government, power did not go into his head. And he is the only one who is still true to the aspirations of Kenyans.

I am hence not yet convinced that amongst the young men who want to go to parliament, any one of them wants to go their with the Kenyan agenda; fighting tribalism, corruption and creating an enabling environment where all Kenyans have equal access to all opportunities Kenyan.

I bet most want to go to parliament because of the big money and nothing else.

Odhiambo T Oketch
Komarock Nairobi