Members of Parliament Have a Right to Demand More Pay
I actually support pay rise for members of
parliament and my reasons are simple and straightforward. We have a populace
that doesn't understand the role of members of parliament. Whenever the so
called "waheshima" visit their constituencies people swam their homes
demanding and requesting for a litany of favors. If the MP does not give those
handouts they are labeled bad, ineffective, inefficient etc and ultimately this
becomes the basis on which they are judged during elections. Two: we have made elections very expensive in this country such
that, safe from few exceptions, candidates for members of parliament have to
invest millions of shillings in the campaigns, funds of which they somehow have
to find ways to recover hence high levels of corruption in parliament and
indeed the clamor for high pay. Here is the thing: until we educate the members
of the public to understand and appreciate that the roles of members of
parliament are legislation, oversight and representation and until we make
campaigns for elections cheaper, these people deserve very high pays.
Unfortunately, the civil society which should help government to conduct proper
and continuous civic education has been labeled evil and its sources of funding
(largely foreign) significantly interfered with by the state which appears to
be happy with uninformed populace for easy manipulation. We reap, what we sow.
Let members of parliament demand high perks; they are justified under the
circumstances.
Members of Parliament Have a Right to Demand More Pay
Reviewed by Ibrahim Magara
on
August 31, 2017
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