(Politics) Kenyan MP Pay Rise: foxes in the henhouse

I’m sure most you reading this (including myself) would like to vote on what they get paid when they retire but unfortunately for us, were not shameless MP’s from Kenya who voted for their retirement package yesterday which includes, according to a BBC News report, “an armed guard, a diplomatic passport and access to airport VIP lounges”[1].

This isn’t the first time that Kenyan MPs have tried to add more weight to their purse as in 2012, Kenya president vetoed an attempt by the MPs to earn a $100,000 bonus despite being best paid politicians in the continent[2] This comes in the face of the Kenyan government being less than hospitable to the plight of public sector workers as it has “repeatedly dismissed the wage demands of striking public sector workers, arguing that the funds were not available”[3].

However the real tragedy of this situation is that the wage is linked to performance or the salaries of politicians are not in line with the salary of the average Kenyan which nearly 13 times less annually than their elected ‘representatives’[4].

There is definitely going to be a push back against MPs voting for  their salaries and bonuses as last year it provoked people to march in the streets in protest while rightly defiling their politicians as “thieves and greedy hyenas”[5].

The timing was especially terrible after the government had initially rebuff teacher strikes leaving a ‘protest organizer’ to wander aloud  "How come our teachers had to strike for three weeks to get a salary hike, yet within a single sitting the MPs could easily increase their remuneration?"[6].

In sum, while Kenya’s lawmakers, at the expense of the taxpayer, can secure a raise so large that it would take a Kenyan “earning the minimum wage…61 years to earn the equivalent” just by voting it, they should expect, better yet anticipate the ire of their constituents and the nation as a whole as there is no room for politicians who seem to have no shame about maximizing their wages based on nothing but their own greed[7].

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[1] BBC News, 2013, Kenyan MPs vote themselves $100,000 retirement bonus, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-20975602

[2] BBC News, 2012, Kenya President Mwai Kibaki rejects MPs’ bonus attempt,  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-19892524

[3] BBC News, 2013, Kenyan MPs vote themselves $100,000 retirement bonus, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-20975602

[4] Ibid

[5] BBC News, 2012, Kenya President Mwai Kibaki rejects MPs’ bonus attempt,  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-19892524

[6] Ibid, quoted by BBC News

[7] Ibid

(Opinion) weak coalition now subject multiple union strikes

While there is very rarely an opportune time in politics to fight a war, to pick fights with key sections of the public sector when your opponents have a solid ten point lead over you in the polls, suffer from a awkward double whammy of suspicion and apathy towards most of your policy initiatives, and are at the center of what is sure to be the most infamous political scandal of the decade, is a very unwise strategy indeed.

The latest group preparing to strike in light of the coalition government targeting their pensions is doctors and GPs, following the police and teachers as the coalition looks set to to be the most unpopular government since the conservative rule post thatcher. With the coalition economic plan based on austerity rather than growth, this has entailed major cuts in the public sector, meaning cuts in pay for workers in the public sector.

the coalition government strategy to justify their position with regard to making large cuts to the public sector is to stress their cost to the taxpayer citing their wage packet in comparison to the private sector, where they know private workers pensions are nothing compared to the public sector, but, the government will never explore why such a deficit exists. Unions in  the private for the most part never survived the purge of the thatcher government that vowed and largely succeeded in breaking the unions thus weakening their bargaining power at the negotiation table.

this policy of weakening unions was largely continued by labor as the labor leadership sought to distance the party from its past, of which the unions are a large part of. Now unions in the private sector, totally defanged,   are now just harmonizer of unpopular company policy as they represent very few workers and have no bargaining power due to a competitive labor market and advancements in the labor process. 

Unions now only have power in the public sector, which makes for a large percentage of their members. workers in this sector are not as disposable but still suffer to large cuts in budgets allocated by the government of the day

however, with a weak coalition government languishing in the polls, Unions see this moment as their chance to put pressure on this government to with a history of backing down major policy initiatives after little pressure from opposing groups. The coalition have no option but wait for unions to come to the table and talk about revisions to their pension cuts proposal

In sum, this government that has made enemies of friends such as the police will show up in the next election as this government has lived up to every stereotype that kept them in the wilderness for more than a decade.