Category Archives: Kenya parliament

Introducing Pork Politics?

A BIS Post a.k.a blogger in shags.

After the fireworks of the Sexual Offences Bill passes, the next bill to read carefully through is the fiscal management bill 2006 – a well meaning bill that will allow parliament greater scrutiny of the country’s budget and spending operations through the creation of a budget office and a fiscal analysis & appropriations committee in parliament.

My main concern is a clause which requires the minister of finance to incorporate comments and recommendation of the committee in preparation of the budget which may amount to the formal introduction of pork politics to Kenya in which case bills will be held up at the whim of an MP so that a need of his constituents may be satisfied. i.e. extra unplanned projects are added to bills at the last minute so it may be passed . While the committee of 17 members has 8 government and 7 opposition representatives, parliamentarians always come together across party lines whenever their welfare is at stake as was demonstrated last week.

Point of Order

Hate to play the cynic in this tough week that Parliemnt has had, with the passing of several MP’s, but here goes;

Parliament opened up its chambers to the media on Tuesday to show an abbreviated hearing where MP’s praised their departed colleagues and moved to adjourn sittings till after their funeral.

This brief window into Parliament procedures demonstrated again, as on all budget speech days, that it is already possible to broadcast parliamentary hearings – which have been promised numerous times.

And it did not require massive, expensive, renovation to achieve this. It’s just that MP’s only want coverage on their best days, not their worst. On Budget day, many of them can’t even stay awake, and I’m sure they’d rather not have viewers see the empty hearings on other days with shouting matches, lack of quorum etc.

It is easy to broadcast footage from Marsabit or Garsen, weddings, church services, seminars, Goldenberg Hearings, bullfights in Western Kenya, etc. – so what’s so hard about giving TV crews (who foot their own bills) access to all parliamentary sessions? They are quite capable of taping sessions cheaply and will not intrude on the on-goings in the house. It would not be suprising if, even after the renovations, Paliament will still not allow television cameras in.

Kenya Gazette issue

By request: Major portions of the Kenya Gazette are available online courtesy of Kenya Law Reports who post the notable directives by ministers and government officials while leaving out death/estate matters which take up ½ of a typical gazette issue. Hat tip: Kenyan Pundit

Telkom update: From the Kenya Gazette: Telkom Kenya moves closer to offering per second billing by first moving from billing calls every three minutes to per one (1) minute.

Mr. Minister, Sir!: Coming soon: A new Mercedes, to go with a new minister’s flag. Presenting the 2007 S-Class.

A to Z Referendum

a
apathy Voter turnout was less than half of what was expected in most areas. Fatigue over the whole matter coupled with the cost of traveling hundreds of kilometers to vote, in an insignificant election, only a month before the expensive Christmas holidays, transport fare hikes, meant that if you couldn’t vote where you lived, you didn’t travel. Presidential elections are usually held in December, during the school holidays and just after Christmas.

b
boredom Cooped in the house for four straight days and TV was non-stop referendum news. See movies

c
clowns too many to mention but the roll includes; (i) the government spokesman who despite having nothing to say, couldn’t resist the opportunity provided by having the election media centre in his office building (KICC) (ii) at least two MP’s who showed up without ID or voter’s cards but demanded to vote.

d
duty Kenyans from all walks of life turned out to perform their civic duty. Turnout was low, but the result showed a true picture of the Kenyan electorate see gullible

e
emergency plans certain donor bodies (e.g. OXFAM) advised staff to avoid Kenya and even set up emergency chains of command and communication just in case things when wrong. Some international banks moved operations staff into hotels in downtown Nairobi so they could be near their office even if there was chaos around town. DT Dobie withdrew all Mercedes cars from their showroom window.

f
Fox News Kenya Royal Media’s Citizen has replaced the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) as the pro-establishment media house of choice. They had round the clock coverage of the election coupled with patriotic songs (both on radio and TV) while their Leader, was the only newspaper to endorse an election position (For a strong Yes!, and even published their opinion poll predicting a slim Yes victory.

The songs played on Citizen are hypnotic and catchy choir melodies, with children singing the choruses, with phrases such as;

kenya kenya kenya
nchi yetu
yenye mafanikio
tupendane, tusaidiane
kenya kenya kenya
Nchi yetu
ukabila tuondoe
tushirikiane sote pamoja

g
gullible Voters in Central and Nyanza who repeatedly produced +97% votes favoring their leaders, and not on the merits of the draft itself.

h
hongera means praise in Kiswahili to all the citizens, and police of Kenya. (i) Citizens for voting peacefully and for putting up with voting hitches and delays. (ii) The Kenya Police force for maintaining peaceful elections around the country, and also for enabling the peaceful staging of two simultaneous political rallies, just hundreds of metres apart in Nairobi on Saturday.

i
incidences catchy word repeatedly used by endless radio hosts when they probably mean to use the words ‘incidents.’

k
Kenyan I now feel like one after voting for the first time ever (shareholder AGM’s don’t count). It’s a shame that I could not vote before when I was abroad

l
line: In Kenya, you should never ever join a line, unless you know where it is going to end. I have learnt this the hard way – at some banking halls, and offices e.g. of KPLC and Kenya Revenue Authority. On voting day, I stood in the first short line I found at the polling station for 30 minutes only to later realize that voters had been assigned to different lines (leading to different voting rooms) based on their names.

m
media the media gave some good coverage. However two incidents troubled me (i) the election was peaceful in most parts of the country, yet near the end of the long day, one TV station devoted over 15 minutes to some stone throwing at one Nairobi location. The media should not glorify sporadic acts which are likely to incite similar incidents. – it’s the reason sports broadcasts don’t show streakers or fans who run onto the pitch (ii) just because the government spokesman is in front of a microphone is no reason to let him talk non-stop – cut him off and do you own (more reliable) reporting. Blooper of the day yesterday was a morning radio host who at 7:30 a.m. asked an on-site reporter if there were any preliminary results!

movies
Watched very good ‘Hotel Rwanda’ and ‘Crash.’ Also watched Spanglish and some other forgettable DVD’s.

n
nite a late entry: as in the Carnivore, who threw a bash called the referendum ‘soul’ night. I Didn’t attend.

o
over as in we hope it’s all over, and can we move on to the economy, service delivery, infrastructure and growth

p
Patriotism see Fox News Kenya

q
queues see lines

r
Resign Like FEMA officials after hurricane Katrina, some people dropped the ball on voting day – and while its not a Kenyan thing to resign, some non- politicians need to resign including; (i) the attorney general and his team for the incoherent draft they produced (ii) all civil servants (identified by KNHRC) who openly defied the code of conduct for public officers and campaigned using their offices (iii) the entire constitution of Kenya review commission (CKRC) – for wasting millions in the name of non-existent civic education, and because their 15 billion shilling gravy train must come to an end after 8 years.

The electoral commission of Kenya gets a pass because overall the election was well carried out but they could have extended both the registration period for voters and hours for voting beyond 5 p.m.

s
smart most voters are smart enough to bring reading materials knowing they may line up for hours, but some (old KC’s) even brought folding stools with them.

t
trash over the last three years we have followed the debate on the draft, sometimes buying two or three newspapers a day just to keep up. Now old newspapers are garbage, which I’m told I can sell for only 20 shillings a kilo. I may have about 15 kilos to clear.

u
uncertainty three types I felt (i) would I be able to vote with a passport? (ii) Should we line up according to names indicated at polling station? (iii) Was my name really on the voter’s roll as it was my first ever vote?

v
violence see media

w
“who’s who’s” included in the voters at polling both around the country were all manner of leaders from the president, MP’s business leaders etc. At my polling station we had Joe Wanjui, Titus Mbathi, Bob Kioko, among others. Still, it’s not a place to network or you may get (violently) thrown out for trying to influence other voters.

x
a simple mark to check one of two boxes on ballot cards. Yet there were so many spoilt ballots because many (literate) villagers did not understand how to vote. See resign

y
yellow church leaders and (most) civil society organizations for failing to take a stand on a very complex document. It was too complicated for me and for many rural people who voted, and yet these ‘experts’ just folded their arms and let the dice roll.

z
zero internet access for most of the weekend. One disadvantage of a mobile phone, and not having a landline, is a dependence on having to use cyber cafés for internet usage – and most of these were closed for several days.

Marathon watch

I spent part of Sunday watching the half-marathon runners pass through the neighbourhood. Like last year, I stood among motorists who felt that they had been inconvenienced by the marathon and who had tried to drive somewhere – church, shopping, office – on Sunday morning only to find the roads closed by the Police. Many of them turned round and went back home, while others switched off and got out of their cards to watch, and alternately scowled, complained that runners were walking not running (this was at about the 15 km mark of the 21km route), looked at their watches, bought & read newspapers, argued with the Police crew at the corner, or complained that they would boycott Standard Chartered Bank, who sponsored the event.

The fact that notices were placed by Standard Chartered, Police, and other companies like Kenya Airways (advising passengers to check in early) meant that not as many people were disrupted by the events, as was the case last year. I stood there and clapped for everyone who passed, then only clapped for those who ran (not walked by) as a a mixture of people old, young, in & out of shape, a team from Korea, of various professions (I saw a banker, lawyer and restaurant owner I knew), some with inappropriate shoes like sandals, or tracksuits (in case it rained like last year – which it didn’t) them . Didn’t rain like last year, but the runners were a smaller field, with lots of tourists it seemed.

new contract
On the company’s fifth anniversary, Safaricom CEO Michael Joseph had his contract extended for another (and final) two-year contract by the firm.

IPO delay?
The Institute of Surveyors of Kenya (ISK) has asked that the asset valuations of the Kenya Railways and Kengen be re-done since they were previously carried out by companies who were not registered valuers. ISK also asked the Capital Markets Authority to delay the Kengen IPO until this is done.

Equipment contracts
– Kenya Data Networks has signed a contract with Siemens to supply fibre optic equipment for KDN’s 1140 km long network.
– Celtel is expected to sign a $53m (4 billion) shilling network upgrade contract with Ericsson.

America Calling

MBA to Kenya: Wharton, the University of Pennsylvania business school, will hold a Nairobi reception on its MBA programs on November 2, at the Grand Regency Hotel from 7:00 – 9:00 pm. Register here.

DV 2007: The 2007 United States diversity visa (DV) lottery registration began on October 5th. Persons seeking to enter the lottery program must register online through the designated website by December 4, 2005. Kenyans are still eligible.

More Debates: Medeva TV will resume, Agenda Kenya, their popular debate show, with debates shown on KBC on each of the last four days leading up to the November 21 referendum. If you’d like to be part of the audience in the show, call 557569/70/71 or visit their offices at The GoDown for details.

Also, Strathmore University will hold another debate on the Constitution this coming Saturday.

More Standard Jobs: The Standard is looking to hire business executives for both its print and electronic departments. The job entails sourcing clients, making presentations, meeting targets, and coming up with strategies that will ensure good customer care. Applicants should have business degrees, be less than 30 years old, and have 1- 3 years sales experience. They should apply by October 25th to the Human Resource Manager at P. O. Box 30080 Nairobi (perhaps e-mail would be faster).