John Ngirachu
11 May 2011
Nairobi — MPs have approved the formation of a 15-member committee to investigate the increased cost of fuel and food, with their recommendations expected back in 30 days.
The motion by Budalang’i MP Ababu Namwamba received overwhelming support a week after MPs walked out of the House at the start of the debate.
MPs contributing said there is a need to reduce the size of the Cabinet as well as foreign trips by the Vice President, the Prime Minister, House Committees as well as the Speaker.
Mr Namwamba said the 15-member Parliamentary Select Committee on Cost of Living would also need to consider “options that may never have been considered before.”
“We must move away from the scenario that JM Kariuki described in the 1970’s, where we had a country of 10 millionaires and 10 million paupers. We can now say there are 40 billionaires and 40 million paupers,” said Mr Namwamba.
He said the House “must consider sharing in the pain of ordinary Kenyans by cutting all non-essential foreign travel by the Speaker and Committees of the House”.
This proposal was also supported by Roads assistant minister Lee Kinyanjui, who said Parliamentary committees are also in the habit of travelling abroad, often to gather information that is available off the internet.
“It is not fair to the Prime Minister and the Vice President to accuse them of making unnecessary trips yet we know that at any one time a quarter of MPs are out of the country,” said Mr Kinyanjui.
Mr Namwamba also proposed that MPs ask The Treasury to withdraw the Sh5 billion allocated to the National Security Intelligence Service in the recently approved Supplementary Budget Estimates.
Mutito MP Kiema Kilonzo said it is time to consider trimming the size of the government by merging ministries.
But he also suggested that the membership if the committee, which will be earning allowances whenever they meet, be expanded to 21 and its reporting deadline extended to two months.
Yatta MP Charles Kilonzo said the committee would go ahead with its work despite chances that the team’s recommendations would not be implemented by the government.
“We know we are talking to a stone and we know that we will not be heard but this Parliament has to be heard. Let’s talk to the stone and even if the stone does not act, we’ll do the hyena style and tell it it has heard, even if it has not listened,” said Mr Kilonzo.
Nominated MP Rachel Shebesh, who is a member of the committee, said they would seek to find out where the buck on the fuel and food crisis ends.
She said there is an apparent disconnect within government as to who amongst the ministries of Finance, Energy, Agriculture or Special Programmes should tackle the food and fuel issues.
Naivasha MP John Mututho, who heads the Agriculture Committee, alleged that the maize, wheat, sugar and seed sectors are in the grip of cartels that are moving faster than government can deal with them.
He said the Agriculture committee is investigating seed shortage and would soon be releasing a report detailing the extent of the problems that have resulted in delays in the provision of seeds to farmers.
“The food shortage is as artificial as the fuel crisis. The government is in deep slumber,” said Mr Mututho.
He said the government should have introduced fast-maturing crops such as cowpeas in areas that are currently experiencing rains as way to alleviate hunger there.
Internal Security assistant minister Simeon Lesirma said the committee should consider the establishment of food banks in the villages to store food from the bumper harvests.
Mr Kinyanjui said the committee should also look at ways of reducing the costs of production, especially power, which are eventually passed on to the consumer.
Alego-Usonga MP Edwin Yinda said waste in government could be reduced by tightening procurement rules as procurement officers have been going out of their ways to ensure the cost of goods in inflated.
He also supported the calls to reduce the size of the Cabinet by 50 per cent.
Nominated MP Shakilla Abdalla cited the coalition government as “the biggest factor in the increased cost of living”, whose cost he said is being passed on to the taxpayer.
Gem MP Jakoyo Midiwo asked the government to release the reserves of maize it is holding into the market to reduce the cost of a 2-kg tin from the current Sh110.
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