Do away with redudant offices to cut down the wage bill

The motion filled by Budalang'i MP on the pay cut among the top earners is timely and the National assembly should embrace it to save the country from the high wage bill. If the president is sincere that he has the interest of Kenyans at heart, as it came out from his address on Sunday on the teachers strike, then he should woe MPs allied to Jubilee to use their infamous tyranny of numbers to pass the motion.

I also concur with Namwamba's suggestion on the reduction of representation in the National assembly. The beneficiaries of the affirmative action (women reps) should be done away with since it’s a wastage of taxpayer’s money as some of their roles are redundant with the roles of the lawmakers. The third gender rule should be implemented in public offices not in parliament. Another redundant office is that of the Ward Administrators, its roles have no difference with those of the Ward representatives.

I however disagree with the Budalang'i law maker on his suggestion that the number of counties and constituencies should be reduced. Despite the challenges of corruption and extravagance within the counties, they have helped a great deal to improve the living standards of the people. There have been improvement in service delivery in those devolved functions compared to when they were under the National government. Instead, what needs to be done is to intensify the fight against corruption among the county executives and the public officers.

Mr. President ‘mourned’ over the high wage bill in his address yet he is among those contributing to it. In his campaigns, he promised to reduce the number of ministries to save the tax payer from high living cost but just the other day he created the ministry of irrigation which to me was an act of political patronage.

Mr. President should learn to walk the talk. Forming commissions whose recommendations are unlikely to be adopted, like the one tasked to handle Makueni case, is a waste of public finance.

Sometime back the president and his deputy had promised Kenyans a pay cut in their salaries which is yet to happen. This is the time the duo acted to salvage their political ship from drowning.