Thika MP wades into the Referendum Debate but…..
While speaking at General Kago Primary School during the
disbursement of bursaries to needy students on Tuesday, Wainaina noted that the
country’s ballooning wage bill wasn’t something that could be wished away and
the country could take advantage of this opportunity to address it through
changes to the current constitution.
The first time Thika MP advocated for a leaner government so
as to check on the bloated Legislature and its impact on the Exchequer,
expressing his concern on how the country was being drained on paying salaries
instead of development projects. He added that the current document may not be
perfect after all, meaning that it could be subjected to amendments to suit the
needs of the country.
The legislator pointed out that it would make a lot of sense
if Kenyans either scrapped the Senate or reduced the current constituencies by
merging them.
“This referendum debate should be about empowering the
mwananchi and not about creating positions to benefit a few leaders. In fact we
should be discussing about reducing the current Parliament to about 114 MPs
only,” said Wainaina.
He suggested that in this composition, at least 30% of the
women should be included in the initial mix so as to cater for affirmative
action.
Noting that laws are not made to benefit a particular group
of people, Wainaina chided those who were advocating for the clustering of
counties into regions as it were in the previous system with a view of creating
positions of leadership for governors whose terms will end in 2022.
“At current rates, 55% of our revenue collections goes to paying
salaries to government officers with another chunk channeled towards debt
repayment as opposed to development. There is also a need to rationalise the
public service so as to avoid unnecessary duplication of roles in government
services,” he said.
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