Crisis Swirls in Kenya, and Politicians Reward Themselves
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Guillaume Bonn for The New York Times A news cameraman videotaping the vehicle of Francis Ole Kaparo, the speaker of Kenya's National Assembly, this month after legislators approved pay increases for themselves, setting off a wave of public criticism.
NAIROBI,
Kenya, May 21 It has been a trying year in Kenya, one of the worst in decades, as a severe drought killed off crops and cattle and left millions with empty stomachs and uncertain futures.
In such suffering, members of Parliament have been roused to action as seldom before, finding common ground on an issue so pressing that they threatened to stonewall the budget until it was addressed: another big increase in their compensation.
The move last month to reward themselves in a time of crisis infuriated Kenyan voters, most of whom eke out a living on a fraction of what their elected officials earn. It also reinforced the notion that this
was a political drought, one that owed its origins as much to mismanagement in a country that should be able to feed itself as to the vagaries of nature.
"They are greedy," said Jackson Ndungu, 50, a computer programmer who offered one of the milder critiques one can hear on the streets of Nairobi these days. "They are out only for themselves."
Their reputation as fat cats did not come out of thin air. After coming into office in 2003 promising to reform an out-of-touch, authoritarian government, they squandered much of the public good will with their very first vote: it quadrupled their annual salaries.
Then they really got to work, voting to give themselves low-interest car and home loans, generous health insurance and retirement packages. As for other types of
legislation, the record has been mixed, with fewer than a dozen bills becoming laws each year.
Kenya is a place where members of the National Assembly are expected to dole out cash to their constituents, and that is one of the justifications that legislators use to increase their own benefits. They say they frequently pay out of their pockets for funerals, school costs and other expenses associated with the people back home. They also contend that Kenyans expect their elected officials to dress well, live well and drive a car that is not a clunker.
The legislative branch of government is flexing its muscles after years of being sidelined by an all-powerful head of state.
"What we are witnessing in Kenya is the rise of Parliament as a force to be reckoned with in
the governance equation after 40 years of being a more or less a rubber stamp for the executive," said Marc Cassidy, an American-financed democracy adviser to Parliament.
Still, some say legislators have lost touch with the poor districts they represent. Per capita income is about $463 a year, which nobody here would expect a lawmaker to survive on. Minimum wage is $924 a year, still far too little, in most Kenyans' view, for someone taking care of the nation's business.
But the base compensation that legislators earn is about $81,000 a year, tax free, plus a variety of allowances and perks, which can effectively double their take-home pay. That means those public servants earn more than most Kenyan corporate executives and outstrip the salaries of many of their counterparts in the developed world.
"They are behaving like we are rich and as if there's no famine and poverty in the country," Maina Kiai, the chairman of the Kenya National Commission of Human Rights, complained recently to the newspaper The Daily Nation. "They want to make as much money as they can."
The latest increase, which cost the country $2.78 million, nearly doubled the mileage allowances that lawmakers receive for their Mercedeses, Land Rovers and other typically sleek rides.
They will now receive a monthly lump sum of $4,719 to cover the first 350 kilometers (217 miles) they drive. After that, they will take in $1.60 per kilometer, significantly more than ordinary Kenyans can claim as deductions on their tax forms.
The mileage allowance was particularly galling to Kenyans, most
of whom struggle to make ends meet, because it was approved while a severe drought ravaged the country.
To get the car allowances, the legislators threatened to block a vote on the government's budget plan, including a provision that provided aid to the 3.5 million people facing food shortages.
Also angering Kenyans was an explanation that politicians offered for needing the additional cash: the country's shoddy road network increases the cost for them to get back and forth from their districts to the capital.
Nearly unanimously, the populace has responded, "Fix the roads."
Within days of awarding themselves the mileage allowance, the legislators increased their constituency development funds,
accounts that each can use to dole out money for projects close to home. Though popular among the public, the funds have been criticized for promoting cronyism and pork projects.
The uproar came at a particularly uncomfortable time for legislators, who earlier this month were hosts for the annual meeting of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, which brought lawmakers from throughout the world to Nairobi to discuss the issues of the day.
But the Kenyan lawmakers offered a solution to their woes. They pleaded with the local news media to keep quiet about their salaries while their visitors, many of whom are more poorly paid than the Kenyans, were in town.
"We should keep our dirty linen in the wardrobe for the duration of the meeting as they do elsewhere in the world,"
said Andrew Ligale, the head of Kenya's organizing committee for the conference.
But the news media did not take the suggestion. Front pages devoted considerable attention to the dispute. "We have a very strong, selfish and indulgent Parliament that is only united when milking the Exchequer," The Standard said in an editorial at the start of the conference.
By the conference's end, another front page article surveyed the salaries of many of the attendees at the conference and found Kenyan members of Parliament to be among the most highly paid in the world.
The speaker of the National Assembly, Francis Ole Kaparo, warned his colleagues publicly the other day that if they continued focusing more attention on themselves than on the nation's business they would surely
be voted out.
"People aren't fools," the speaker said. "People follow what they do, and if they don't stay in line with their constituents they will not be re-elected."
But apparently many of these lawmakers already believe they are short-timers, which is why they are feathering their nests as much as they can, while they can.
Still, some good may come out of this. There is talk of creating an outside commission to decide parliamentary salaries, taking the issue out of the hands of the beneficiaries.
Until that time, though, lawmakers are watching their backs.
One threatened to vote for the ouster of President Mwai Kibaki if
he tried to eliminate the constituent development funds, which give lawmakers the ability to decide spending priorities themselves.
Another has proposed censuring the speaker for daring to criticize the members' pay, not to mention their penchant for extended recesses. "He should not play inaccurate populist politics just for the expediency of the moment," said Otino Kajwang, who contends he and other legislators work hard for the good of the country and deserve every shilling they get.
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