After Kenyans voted for the new constitution, Kenyans thought only 20 per cent of the constitution will be amended and the rest will be left the way it is, but this tends to be opposite since politicians want 80 per cent of the constitution amended. Recently, Cord coalition suggested for a referendum saying that the constitution is not good while Council of governors are asking for “pesa mashinani”, trying to argue that the money set aside for County governments is not enough.
Making matters worse, the coalition leader Raila Odinga also wants Kenya to revert to the previous system where Cabinet Secretaries were appointed by the Mps, saying that current system is paving way for certain communities to secure those positions.
The above matter is supposed to suit individuals and Kenyans should not keep trying to change things relentlessly to suit individuals but long-lasting solutions should be the key driver rather than being guided by several or groups of people.
Cabinet secretaries should not be appointed from politicians since what we saw from previous governments, the rate of corruption was very high where ministry of land was the most affected. Kenya might not grow visionary if we keep cabinet secretaries who are politicians since they will concentrate mostly on political issues and forget about their ministries since this will also overload them.
We also need to have cabinet secretaries who are professional but not political since they will be able to handle matters the way they should be handled, and also politics will affect key decisions in the government.
Recently, President Uhuru Kenyatta was able to revoke 500,000 acres of land, which were grabbed by groups of people and this shows how previous method of appointing ministers was based on corruption. If we go back to these methods, most of these cases will not be handled correctly since this means appointing new cabinet secretaries.
Uhuru said that the ministry of land audit showed that most of the land in Lamu had been grabbed by criminal elements between April 2012 and November 2012, despite a Moratorium on Public Land. This was during Siaya Senator James Orengo’s tenure as Lands minister.
Though this might be one way, which can be used to bar the president from appointing their friends and people from one tribe, we need not to go back to it but we should look for other ways, which can offer job opportunities to those currently unemployed since MPs have their offices to run already.