The Coalition for Reform and Democracy (CORD) can only be viewed as an
alternative government if it desisted from pursuing piecemeal solutions to the
challenges facing the country. We laud Raila Odinga and Kalonzo Musyoka for their
empathy on the striking teachers but, asking Kenyans to fundraise for them
isn't the best way to go.
Where will Raila and Kalonzo hide their heads four
days after their Cord coalition launched a campaign fund raiser for teachers, now that the
court has suspended the strike and requested the unions to resolve the dispute
in 3 months? Secondly, who will be the beneficiary to the meagre funds they
have collected and, will this not provide raw fodder for jubilee critics?
Soon, the two principals will be accused of swindling (coning) Kenyans under the aegis of fundraising for striking
teachers!
What Cord needed was to show us a better alternative which is the surest
way to convince voters that if the coalition takes power in 2017, they will
mitigate national challenges through viable and long-term remedies.
Watching the Cord rally at Uhuru Park, I was extremely disappointed that
no leader was able to propose anything tangible except threatening how they
will occupy Harambee House as if this will produce money to pay teachers and
restore learning in our national schools.
Launching a pay bill number to solicit
for donations from Kenyans to cater for 300,000 KNUT and KUPPET members wasn’t
a well thought idea. In fact, how much will they actually raise to pay teachers?
Secondly, what will Cord do if Civil Servants under the Civil servants
Union and the Central Organization of Trade Unions (COTU) downed their tools
demanding more pay? Will they launch another fundraiser?
It’s worthy to remember that, we haven’t been told what happened to the Orange Relief Services launched in
May and spearheaded by Governor Ali Hassan Joho. Besides, the OKOA Kenya
Referendum initiative whose issues resonated well with the nation appears to
have stalled.
The opposition should give Kenyans hope. Asking
for donations from citizens whose majority are living from hand to mouth is not
only an insult but also a desperate campaign tool.
Unless Cord wants to raise a paltry
amount that can only buy a cup of tea for each striking teacher, I don’t expect
the coalition to raise funds that can pay over 300000 teachers.
We want to hear concrete policy proposals to tackle the
bloated wage bill and reducing income inequality which are the genesis of
perennial industrial unrest, poverty, disunity and tribal disharmony in the
country.
We can’t dismiss the Jubilee government’s argument that honouring the
teachers pay hike as ordered by the court will overstrain the national
exchequer but Cord failed to offer any solution during their rally on this
catastrophic matter which has ruined learning in our schools; a tragedy in the
modern information age.
The opposition should talk about issues like, corruption in the national
government and Counties, how they will recover funds stashed in offshore
accounts if they capture power, warning
thieves who steal from the public and plough the loot back as harambees to buy
political loyalty, how to net culprits involved in the mysterious
disappearance of funds from the treasury and downsizing the number of elected
representatives in order to reduce recurrent expenditure.
We also expected the opposition to hit at
Governors who have formulated costly bureaucracies instead of applying
reasonable and cost cutting measures to improve service delivery at the
Counties. It’s also worrying that during Cord’s rally, no MP backed the bill proposed by ODM Secretary General,
Ababu Namwamba which is intended to slash the MP’s salaries by 50 percent to
raise money for teachers.
Our leaders are either unprincipled, inconsistent or
suffers from selective amnesia. Why did the Mwingi Central MP Joe Mutambu renege on a bill he was
pursuing last year whose enactment would have resulted in the reduction of the
number of counties, senators and Members of the National Assembly?
Secondly, during the burial of former Juja MP George Thuo, the deputy
Chief Whip in parliament Jakoyo Midiwo hinted
that he will pursue a bipartisan motion in Parliament that will restructure the
legislature to cut government expenditure.
It’s high time we started questioning the consistency
of the leaders we elect in order to hold them accountable for their actions.
Finally, fundraising for teachers wasn’t a well thought idea by Cord. What
the country expected from the opposition on the teachers strike is workable
alternatives since they purport to be a government in waiting.
