{UAH} 100 days in office later, no direction, no purpose

http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/07/19/what-the-zimmerman-verdict-looks-like-on-the-right/

 

 

What have the Jubilants achieved in their first 100 days in office?

Not much by all accounts. Nobody minds free maternal healthcare. But the lack of direction and purpose is clear.

Concern about the fate of devolution was partially put to rest by the higher than constitutionally required budgetary allocations. But the county budgets are, for the most part, less than inspiring.

There's little to impress unless we like drama. Members of parliament won the war for yet more remuneration. The Lower House is contemptuous of the Upper House. That fight's now gone to court.

The Executive lost its war with the striking teachers—closing public schools on the heels of an agreement that gave the teachers part of what they wanted.

As for security, the war between the Inspector General of Police and the National Police Service Commission continues.

Even as the insecurity faced by Kenyans every day is revealed, with a recent poll showing that 10 per cent of Kenyans were victims of crime in the past three months.

The failure of security sector reform to inspire confidence is evident too—half of those victims couldn't even be bothered to report the same.

Meanwhile, the Kenya Revenue Authority is working hard to maintain its upward trend on collections to feed the M-Pigs and their county-level counterparts. It's unclear who won the war on exempting food from tax.

We learn of a new tax on all bank transactions of a shocking 10 per cent per transaction. On top of the already ridiculous banking charges that pertain.

In short, the lustre has fallen off the notion that, democracy aside, the Jubilants would be good for the economy.

As for democracy, the 150-plus electoral petitions currently under way before the courts reveal horrors about the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission on a daily basis.

Another drama—the fate of Kethi Kilonzo's senatorial bid.

We learn four voters' registers weren't apparently enough for the IEBC—there was a separate voters' registration series for the presidency. Why? No explanation.

Just as there's still no explanation for the fact that—four months down the road!—the IEBC has not yet released results for all levels of the elections, let alone results from the polling stream level.

Then the IEBC defies the lower house—which demanded the results at all levels to calculate the payments to political parties.

We hear an amendment's being considered to change the basis on which political party allocations are made. In short, electoral reforms have failed to inspire confidence too.

But we are too dispirited to care any more: Let the Jubilants and the national government do what they feel like doing (or not). The people have withdrawn to the counties. Bread and butter's the name of the game.

Well, our apathetic, dispirited and listless selves are in for a shock. Bread and butter are already harder to come by. The county budgets, in the main, were more about getting the county representatives onto the taxpayers' gravy train.

One hundred days in office. Directionless. Purposeless. Apathetic, dispirited and listless. With a shock to come. Not a good scorecard. Unsurprisingly.

L. Muthoni Wanyeki has just completed her graduate studies at L'Institut d'etudes politiques (Sciences Po) in Paris, France.