Parliament takes the lead in clawing back freedoms Kenyans fought for

What you need to know:

  • We need to introduce laws through referenda, including death penalty for theft of public funds. The style can vary but it should include public executions by firing squad at Uhuru Park at high noon.

Parliamentary committees such as the Public Accounts Committee and the Public Investments Committee have powers to summon any public official and recommend trial through the Director of Public Prosecutions.

So when these same MPs are accused of taking bribes to trash audit findings, then the corruption demons are the winners.

It would require that this war be taken to the next level, where the government auditor is given, by the Constitution, powers to prosecute wherever he feels that the MPs were compromised.

INTEGRITY BILL

The failure to adopt the Integrity Bill drafted by the Commission for the Implementation of the Constitution could be the main cause of all the “chicken” eating in Parliament; the lack of vetting by the discredited IEBC prior to the 2013 elections led to criminals ascending to power.

That Parliament is today inhabited by people of questionable character is not in doubt. You only need to look at what they do and say. They fight to defeat justice. They make nonsense of the work done by the government auditor.

They change the law to benefit themselves and deny the country good governance. They take bribes. They steal public money through the CDF.

They do not want anybody to have oversight powers over them and actually change the law to realise that end. They defeat efforts to make accountability laws.

What then can this country do? If we do not take action now, then the MCAs will do the same.

What kind of governance is this? We used to complain about Moi-era impunity. This is more deadly; sycophancy is used to hide impunity.

By 2017, it will not be possible to try in court those in the corridors of power because the laws will have been changed to protect the mighty and jail the weak. Unless the downtrodden wake up, serfdom will reign.

We need to introduce laws through referendums, including the death penalty for theft of public funds. The style can vary but it should include public executions by firing squad at Uhuru Park at high noon.

Take the case of the energy sector, including the Geothermal Development Company. Parliament should have indicted scores of officials by now, but nothing is happening. Claims that wells are being drilled for geothermal power at inflated costs should be investigated.

Even Kenya Power should be investigated. Inflated power bills make Kenya uncompetitive, and cost the country thousands of jobs as investors shun the country and take their businesses to our neighbours.

KARIUKI MUIRI, Karatina