President Uhuru Kenyatta has been urged to desist from subjecting the country to unnecessary by-elections.
The call comes moments after the country held two by-elections in Malindi constituency and Kericho County on Monday following the appointment of Dan Kazungu and Charles Keter to the Cabinet.
Kazungu, who heads the Mining docket, was Malindi MP, while Keter, now the Energy CS, was Kericho Senator.
On Monday, Kitutu Masaba MP Timothy Bosire dismissed the appointment of elected leaders to key government positions thereby occasioning by-elections, noting they are expensive to be sustained by the government.
“Sometimes it’s not necessary to subject Kenyans to unnecessary by-elections. The country loses millions of shillings in preparing for the mini-polls and this is not positive for our economy. The President should henceforth avoid appointing MPs and Senators to Cabinet positions,” he said.
“It’s a waste of time because we spend a lot of time campaigning and putting the country into electioneering mood. This is the time when Kenyans should be getting services and not engaging in politics,” Bosire added.
He said the resources used in by-elections should be diverted to other development projects and faulted presidential advisors for giving the President ‘myopic’ advices.
“You see, unprecedented by-elections like the ones in Malindi and Kericho were a self-creation of State House. We had qualified Kenyans who would have taken the job easily. The amount of resources that have been used would have been diverted to other state departments to boost services to people,” he said.
“The presidential advisors are out to ruin our country by giving myopic advices and this is unacceptable. Our economy is struggling yet some people are out there to subject the country to unnecessary expenses like by-elections which are created for political issues,” said the ODM legislator.