Creaw Portal

The spouses of public servants have no justifiable entitlement to money from the public purse.

Yet this week Head of Public Service Francis Muthaura ordered that the wives of Prime Minister Raila Od­inga and Vice-President Kalonzo Musy­aka be paid Sh400,000 a month each in responsibility allowances. They will also be entitled to allowances similar to those extended to senior public officials such as permanent secretaries when they travel.

Ambassador Muthaura claimed that the spouses playa critical role projecting a positive image of "our nation's family values':

He said the wives will engage in various activities "for the public good" on top of playing the role of hostess" at official en­gagements involving their husbands.

Mrs Musyoka works at the Central Bank of Kenya while Mrs Odinga is in the pri­vate sector, serving as the managing di­rector of East Africa Spectre, one of the Odinga family businesses.

IT WAS NOT CLEAR WHETHER THE two women will leave their current oc­cupations and turn their full attention to the new image projection and unspeci­fied activities Amb Muthaura alluded to, or whether they will earn two salaries.

The First Lady is paid a monthly allow­ance of more than Sh500,000 and has an office at National Health Insurance Fund house in Nairobi for which the govern­ment pays more than Sh250,000 a month in rent and which she is yet to use since it was rented for her in 2003.

The vice-president's official residence is under construction in the Karen suburb of Nairobi at a cost of more than Sh100 million.

Kenya's leaders have lives that are en­tirely underwritten by the taxpayer: They

are entitled to housing, servants, security, free transport, free schooling, free medi­cal care,' The taxpayer, through the ex­chequer, pays for everything for leaders and their families.

The latest attempt to give more money to the leading families is insensitive and wasteful. They already consume large amounts of public resources. In any case, the ladies in question have independent careers and are already in jobs. Unless they have asked the government to pay them for the sacrifices they make on be­half of the nation, it is presumptuous to foist more money on them.

A salary is paid against service, against a job done. The attempts by Amb Muth­aura to invent jobs for the wives of the Prime Minister and the Vice-President are patently disingenuous.

Leadership, and greatness involves a definite amount of sacrifice, awillingness to give and expect nothing in return. If the people of Kenya are going to pay a lot of money for those who project "a positive image" or host a reception in their tax­funded palaces once in while, where will the money come from?

The leadership of this country cannot continue to pretend that 36 million Ken­yans exist to feed them and their families, and keep them in luxury. This lack of re­spect for taxpayers' money is contemptu­ous of the fact that this is a poor country, many of whose citizens live on the verge of starvation.

Last week the Surulay Nation reported the sad story of 41-year-old Simon Kive­lenge from Kyusa District. His wife, Bea­trice Muthakye Kivelenge, had just given birth to triplets. He has named the tri­plets after the President, the Vice- Presi­dent and the Prime Minister. Whereas Mr

Kivelenge was thrilled and welcomed the triple blessing, his biggest concern is that

he has no idea how he is going to feed his now very large family.

THEY LIVE IN HOVELS, THEIR BEDS

makeshift contraptions made of sticks and stuffed sacks. The family owns a donkey and a few chickens, their diet is a single meal of boiled dry maize a day. They are not alone. There are millions in this country who do not know where their next meal will come from. Sh400,000 would feed Mr Kivelenge's big family for a year, if not more.

In other countries, the more fortunate give to the less fortunate. In Kenya, it ap­pears, it is exactly the opposite. 1t is a dis­graceful and unsustainable condition.

This offer of free money must either be withdrawn or refused.

Churches admit failure in violence

Throughout the week, the attention of the country has been focused on the lake­side town of Naivasha where scores of residents, particularly women and young girls, have been subjected to terrible crimes by a ruthless gang of youngsters.

Though Naivasha has attracted con­siderable media attention due to claims of blood sucking and cannibalism, it is a widely acknowledged fact many youths across the country will readily embrace violence either as a form of protest or as a means to secure a meal. When young peo­ple turn to rape, defilement and murder, it epitomizes a society whose. Moral val­ues have been eroded to the extent that it poses a grave danger itself.

That teenagers are increasingly turning to beastly and violent crimes is possibly a

direct result of the fact that we as people have a proclivity towards unrestrained vi­olent behavior to resolve our differences as in the post-election violence.

Children witnessed their parents, broth­ers and sisters butchered for reasons be­yond their comprehension and saw their homes wantonly destroyed.

In the ugly mix was the church, an im­portant institution in shaping and deter­mining the moral tempo of the society. Yet, as we report elsewhere, the church in a bold confession is saying that it let down its flock in the hour of need.

The umbrella National Council of Churches of Kenya admits that some of its members not only took partisan posi­tions but also participated in the violence that threatened to push the country over the precipice.

In abdicating their cardinal duty to pro­mote peaceful co-existence and resolution of differences among people, church lead­ers ceased to be role models for young minds.

But it would be unfair to blame the church alone for youthful crime. Af3 par­ents we are increasingly leaving the duty of moulding our children to teachers. The result is children with little interaction with their parents and therefore no sense of a connection to a society that exists by laid down rules and obligations.

A PUBLICAnON OF NAnON lIUlD!A Gnoup LINUS GITAHI: Chief Executive Officer WANGETHI MWANGI: Editorial Director JOSEPH ODINOO: Group Managing Editor Published at Nation Centre, Klmathi Street and printed at Mombasa

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