It was a statement about protection of the integrity and independence
of national institutions. We had reached a point where the National
Assembly was about to be held hostage by a power-thirsty political
elite consumed by the winner-take-all game, rendering it incapable of
appreciating the damage which the endless wrangling and jockeying was
threatening to do to the economy.
That gridlock in Parliament was threatening to bring the operations of
the whole government to a standstill. With the passage of a
supplementary budget suspended, the government was sooner or later
going to find itself in a situation where it would be unable to release
money from the Exchequer without breaking the law.
The disagreement had raised political temperature to an all-time high,
with pundits beginning to question the very survival of the coalition
government.
In terms of clear reasoning and articulation of the pertinent issues,
Mr Marende's ruling was in a class of its own. And, in terms of new
ideas and depth, he consistently kept his standards high, way above the
partisan preachments we had become used to hearing from lawyers from
both sides of the divide.
The Speaker refused to be intimidated by neither President Kibaki or
Prime Minister Odinga. As an autonomous entity, Parliament must
continue doing duty to the country without interference from Executive.
That was the most poignant message in his ruling.
I propose Mr Marende for Statesman of the Year. One of the most
important lessons to be learnt from his performance on Tuesday is that,
for democracy to take root, this country will have to nurture popular
moderates.
The democratic experiment in Kenya has not made much of a headway
because we have a political establishment that does not have popular
moderates. Nor have we evolved a bedrock of non-partisan institutions.
The reason why Mr Marende's ruling comes through as specifically
refreshing is because it has been made in a context of a society so
polarised that even lawyers and academics are wont take predictable
positions in national debates, depending on which side of the ethnic
divide they belong.
How I hope that the spirit of Mr Marende's ruling will shock the
political elite into appreciating the economic challenges facing the
government!
WE HAVE A SH25 BILLION HOLE IN the budget. Until the other day, all
indications were that the government would implement a major austerity
programme. As a matter of fact, Finance permanent secretary Joseph
Kinyua put out a circular proposing a Sh23 billion cut in the budget
for this financial year.
But as it turned out, the proposals were shot down by the political
establishment. Although budgets for several ministries were cut in the
supplementary budget, the cuts were negated by huge increases in the
budgets of other ministries.
What this means is that the government may be forced, in the coming
months, to borrow more money from the domestic and capital markets than
had been projected.
Immediately markets read that the government is short of cash, they
will demand more for their money, causing interest rates to go up. The
truth of the matter, however, is that against the background of the
prevailing recessionary conditions, high interest rates do not make
economic sense.
The poor state of government finances aside, the political elite is yet
to fully grasp the likely negative impact of the global financial
crisis on our economy.
Granted, we went through the first round of the crisis without much of
a hitch. This is because our banking system did not buy much of the
toxic assets that have brought banking systems in the West down to
their knees. Apart from South Africa and Nigeria, most of the financial
systems in the rest of the continent remained insulated.
The problem is that while the first round of the global crisis was
financial, and therefore mainly affected commercial banks, the second
round of the global financial crisis will be economic, with the
potential of negatively impacting on the macro-economies of most
African countries.
We will not escape this time around. Demand for Kenyan exports to
Europe and North America may fall as a consequence of recessionary
conditions in those countries. Kenyan banks have deposits in foreign
institutions.
If these banks fail, we won't escape. Tourism will be affected and
remittances from Kenyan living abroad will cease. We need to put
economic issues on top of the national agenda.
Daily Nation
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