Locking out aspirants with no degrees makes more sense

The move by 10 constitutional institutions to lock out political office aspirants with questionable pasts and even more questionable “academic” papers is in the right direction, but it has come a little too late and is hardly enough. What it will, in fact, do is to open another avenue for cacophony, ceaseless litigation and self-righteous claims of witch-hunt.

This decision should have been implemented more than four years ago, but our Parliament would have none of it; the MPs simply removed the clause that would have required them to have university education. Although most of them do have degrees, nothing has happened since 2012 to make them change their minds about protecting their less endowed colleagues.

This makes the resolve by the 10 institutions almost useless. To insist that all aspiring MPs should have degrees would have had a lot more impact. The desire to improve the intellectual level of our law-making process is understandable. We need to look up to our leaders confident in their thinking and reasoning capacities. A country that boasts a bunch of dummies with no idea of what they are doing is in a very precarious situation.

We need people who understand all the ramifications of any law they intend to make or change. We need people who can originate Bills pertinent to the needs of their constituents. And we need law-makers who understand and can interpret the Constitution for themselves and who will not be bamboozled into endorsing predetermined outcomes by their colleagues or by the Executive.

A counter-argument to this is that a degree does not a savvy politician make. There are numerous examples of highly educated legislators who cannot cross the road and chew gum at the same time. There are those who are unable to come up with a single original idea, and others who are hardly articulate in any language. This, in short, means that we can’t use higher education as the only measure of leadership and intelligence.

A STANDARD

However, there has to be a standard below which we dare not sink, and a degree certificate, though not ideal, is a starting point. That is why such documents are absolutely necessary for our law-makers. Singling out presidential candidates, 47 governors and their deputies for such a requirement is merely discriminatory.

The other issue is even more problematic. The question of ethics and integrity is one that cannot be settled in the days remaining before the elections. In the recent past, a number of law-makers have been hauled to court on charges ranging from hate-speech to abuse of office. Others, mainly governors, have simply stolen or misappropriated tax money, but none has ever been successfully prosecuted.

Now someone thinks that the best punishment for such miscreants is to prevent them getting elected, but it won’t happen. Not in the time remaining. Unless there is a deliberate effort to implement the law speedily and bar such people early from elective office, all this lofty talk will amount to nothing, and we might as well do away with Chapter Six of the Constitution altogether.

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Kenya’s wealth must be mind-boggling. At least 5,000 doctors working in public hospitals went on strike last December and they did not resume duty until last week. Now they want to be paid salaries amounting to Sh3.2 billion for the three months they stayed away, and they have resolved to strike again if this does not happen. I don’t know what law they are using to make the demand, but they could ultimately get away with it, this being an election year.

However, members of county assemblies have gone one better. They want to be paid all the money they would have earned were their tenure not cut short by eight months due to the election being held this August. They say the law is on their side because their term should end in March next year.

This country has 4,500 MCAs, each one taking home at least Sh250,000 a month. Simple arithmetic indicates that if you pay out this sum, the taxpayer will be out of pocket by Sh1.1 billion a month. When this figure is multiplied by eight, it comes to Sh10 billion. That, if my math is correct, is what the MCAs want to rob the taxpayer. Now the 10 billion Kenya shilling question: Does this country really need all these fellows in the first place?

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