What is In a Seat: Kenya's Parliamentarians Can Now Sit On a $3,000 Seat.

So what’s in a seat, you may ask. Well, if you are seated on an average seat as it were, then it’s not a big deal; but if your seat costs taxpayers money in the region of $3,000 (Ksh.249,000) then we begin to raise eyebrows. Ideally there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. Who would want to be associated with a national assembly fitted with benches where members of parliament fidget uneasily apparently because their rear behinds can’t take the heat from the uncomfortable benches or squeeze each like passengers in a matatu for lack of space? The Kenyan parliament has acquired a new look or swag as the youth may put. It now boasts of a $12m (Ksh.0.996billion) state-of-the-art facilities including a 50kg fireproof seats, touch screens for electronic voting with buttons therefore there’ll be no…”Order! Order!” from the house speaker as members of parliament jostle to use the only microphone while heckling each other down. Each seat is fitted with a microphone and flat screens have been fitted strategically to help members follow proceedings of the house without strain. While I consider myself a techie and a proponent of any endeavor that boosts development, this must not be done at the expense of other priority areas like education, health, unemployment among the youth and the biting poverty.

Speaking of health, there’s an ongoing campaign dubbed “Bring Zack Back Home” spearheaded by the Kenya Paraplegic Association which has set a target to raise 25milllion Kenya shillings to build a modern rehabilitation center for people with spinal injury. This is in light of the fact that the nearest spinal rehabilitation center is located thousands of miles away in South Africa where Zackary Kimotho or Zack as he is popularly known, is travelling using nothing but his wheel chair. As if that is not enough, there is another dragon called cancer which has already overtaken HIV/AIDS as the number one killer disease in Kenyans forcing hundreds to fly abroad to countries like India, Europe and the United States of America to seek treatment because as this stands, the country lacks modern cancer treatment equipment capable of serving the myriad of patients lining up the only referral hospital with a semblance of such facilities for chemotherapy.

On the education sector, we still have a long way to go. Enrollment rates are still not that impressive with hundreds of students who fail to make the cut to join secondary schools forced to look for other alternatives as their dreams are cut short suddenly. This is linked to poverty which many families are still shackled under and are not getting any assistance to extricate them from this demeaning condition. Those who make it to secondary schools are not lucky either. If one doesn’t score enough marks to join the few public universities we have, they end up doing menial jobs at best or loiter around jobless at worst.

The construction of the modern national assembly therefore raises many questions regarding our priorities as a country. 2015 Is just around the corner yet we haven’t achieved much of the millennium development goals (MDGs) we set out to. Some of the questions that need answers include:

   1. Do we need that expensive state-of-the-art parliament in the first place?

   2. Will the new house enhance the members (Mps) efficiency and performance?

   3.  Are we-as tax payers- going to get value for our hard-earned cash?

   4.   Were there other viable alternatives to explore?

These are key questions that ought to be answered by the powers that be and key decision makers in government.