Academic qualifications must for elected leaders, Kamar says
What you need to know:
- Former higher education minister Margaret Kamar said it was an oversight on the part of the drafters of the Constitution of Kenya 2010 to omit academic status for members of the three legislative bodies at the national and counties levels.
- Prof Kamar said MPs, senators and MCAs ought to be more qualified to scrutinize the financial performances of the two level of government under the stewardship of the President, Cabinet secretaries, governors and executive members.
Legislators at all levels need to have certain academic qualifications in order to efficiently and effectively conduct their oversight mandate.
At present, the Constitution and the County Government Act do not specify academic qualifications for members of county assemblies (MCAs).
Former higher education minister Margaret Kamar said it was an oversight on the part of the drafters of the Constitution of Kenya 2010 to omit academic status for members of the three legislative bodies at the national and counties levels.
In an exclusive interview with the Nation in Mombasa at the weekend, Prof Kamar said MPs, senators and MCAs ought to be more qualified to scrutinize the financial performance of the two levels of governments under the stewardship of the President, Cabinet secretaries, governors and executive members.
“The person who should oversight somebody with degree should have much higher education. There are some oversight issues that do not require academic qualification like inspecting projects.
"In the case of oversight on the budgets, we need somebody who understand that. Some budget items can be hidden inside another and we need people who understand that,” she said.
Prof Kamar observed that the MCAs might have learnt about their shortcomings in scrutinizing budgets and propose their own necessary changes that would help their successors to be more productive in their work.
She said a university degree is not the only ingredient for good leadership but leaders should consider that a certain education level is necessary to allow them to be capable of discharging their oversight roles at the national and county levels.
The issue of academic qualifications for MPs, senators and MCAs emerged in the just concluded Legislative Summit that brought together MCAs and senators.
County Assemblies Forum chairman Nuh Nassir Abdi said academic qualifications among MCAs should not be an issue.
He said several counties have rigorously trained their technical staff to ensure laws are properly worded and are of high quality, adding that the 47 county assemblies have passed thousands of effective laws since 2013.
“We have countries like Switzerland where elected leaders have no qualifications and they are really doing superb jobs," added Dr Nuh.
Among those who raised concerns about the quality of legislation created by MCAs was Bungoma Senator Moses Wetang’ula, who proposed to the Senate "to help improve on such grey areas".
