Open letter to the President, via Peter Irungu @IrunguPeter Dear Mr. President @Ukenyatta, Allow me to write a letter to you. It is time we had a conversation. I am only Kenyan. Nothing more nothing less. Before we go into various matters, I just want to acknowledge that you do have a difficult job. Running a country is no easy task. Having said that however, there are a couple of things we need to touch base on. 1. In the last 6 months, some things have moved in what I would call a positive direction. You relented around the funds to the counties. I can understand your hesitation around this. Given that counties are new, no infrastructure to speak of in terms of accountability for funds, development plans, projections, some didnt even have an Executive in place and for some that did, there were quarrels about their appointment. And given your outspokenness against corruption, embezzlement, fraud etc within government, I can see why that took some time. 2. There was the promise around free maternity care. Yes, you did well on that one too. Free maternity for all expectant mothers. The announcement took a bit of time..of course, one has to consider how many facilities have maternity units, how many children are born there, how is the staffing, what is the equipment they have in readiness for a possible increase in numbers etc. One doesnt just make a declaration without working through the operational, logistical implications of such a decision. And of course there was the little matter of redefining and consolidating previous Ministry of Medical Services with Ministry of Public Health and figuring out who stays and who goes, cut jobs back etc...and of course you did assert your commitment to reducing the public wage bill. A promise is a promise and gentlemen keep their promises. As for execution..? well somebody has to figure out how that is to be done, right? 3. I hate to bring this up but it is important to chat about. Yes, the laptop for every standard 1 kid within 100 days of you winning the presidency. Now, you see, on this one, you have failed. You see, there has always been room for you to realign on the timelines, the scale etc. I mean, why give a Std 1 pupil a laptop when the teacher may not actually know how to use it? If the Ministry of Education has not developed requisite apps for learning in line with the education curriculum [which I honestly think needs an overhaul], still can not account for FPE funds, spending huge amounts of money at conferences [by the way, proves it is not just civil society that spends money on conferences as some in your camp assert], teachers on strike all over the place demanding 10 year old promises be kept etc..it would take more than 100 days to deliver the laptops. Do we know how many are needed? Do we know where they will be sourced from? Did we develop a training regimen for all teachers so that they can use them? did we ensure that all kids can have safe places to keep them and that teachers also have some and servers to connect them etc etc? Oh, that explains why it could not be done in 100 days. Question: when will this be done? Being a dad yourself, you can imagine the disappointment on a 6 year old waiting for a laptop past the 100 days....I guess this will happen sometime soon [oh after the rebid as I learnt the last one had flaws] I would appreciate an honest answer that I can give any child who asks me about this... 4. Thank you for the increase in base wage by 14%. Truly shows commitment to the people and as you called us hustlers that was a welcome relief. Except, some little complication called the Finance Bill and increase in VAT on basic commodities. You see, it is like hustler was given with one hand and it was taken with the other. Then again, who will pay for shuttle diplomacy, laptops, free maternity care etc if the taxes on the hustler do not increase. I can understand that. I only wish someone had the guts to tell us before hand so that we jipanga [Hustler term for make plans]. Did you notice that almost all counties have increased rates? Check the Gazette notice for Nairobi, Kiambu and I think Mombasa as well. 5. The thing that also baffles me is retreat into Jubilee Manifesto rhetoric. See, that just doesnt cut it. It is not 40M Kenyans that voted for that you and by extension that manifesto. It was approx 6M [then again do we really want to go there at this moment?] So a word of caution here, democracy is a government of the people by the people for the people {very basic definition}..so whether it is in Jubilee Manifesto or not, extend a courtesy hand to all in Kenya so they recognise you as president of Kenya and not president of Jubilee [that country doesnt exist] 6. Talking of Kenya as a country, kindly remember your words around this whole ICC case. You categorically said that this is a personal challenge and thereby will not impede on your ability to be President. Here again, am lost. Whilst acknowledging the implications a President under trial for crimes against humanity do note that you made a commitment on live TV. Prior to this commitment, a large part of your current team coined lets not be vague, lets go to Hague. Well, Hague has come knocking and instead of sitting and explaining how the situation has changed, shuttle diplomacy checks in, sovereignty of the nation kicks in, withdrawal from Rome Statute kicks in. By the way, I may not be the most informed about these things but some thing tells me that the motion to withdraw maybe technically unconstitutional. Then again, you have more brain power around you to circumvent this that we may ever be able to amass. 7. On matters constitution, Amendment 260. Boss, as I have outlined there are many things that need to be sorted out. I am not even sure whether you have any powers around this but kindly do not assent to that amendment. If you do, your message to Kenyans will be clear Mta-do?. This list is long but I think you are beginning to get the drift of it. We await your word on what actually took place at Westgate, JKIA, Baragoi, Bungoma, TanaRiver, Garissa, extra judicial killings all over the place, shootings in Msa, etc. Yours is a tough job Mr. President and I sympathize with you. We may be able to support you, kindly throw us a bone...some thing to clutch on to.... Yours faithfully, A Kenyan.
Posted on: Mon, 28 Oct 2013 18:52:40 +0000
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