“A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody”   By Thomas Paine

If the High Court of Kenya’s decision made on 13/01/2012 that the life of the 10th Parliament shall end on 15/01/2013 is not set aside or varied by the Court of Appeal on 31/07/2012 when that Court will deliver its Judgment on the appeal then it will mean that the current elected Members of Parliament and Councillors have only about six months to the end of their five years in those offices.

West fm states that it is now the right time upto 15/01/2013, the end of the term of elected Members of Parliament and Councillors for the electorate to as it were mark, assess, evaluate, audit the performance of those elected leaders and depending on their pass mark decide who to re-elect to continue the good work performed and who to evict and jettison from any elected office for being a non-performer and a parasite on the electorate.  Any pass mark below B+ ought to be adjudged failure granted the monumental challenges that face the people can only be managed by a B+ or above performers.

The critical issue is that the electorate ought to have clarity of mind that the marking of the performance of the now sitting elected leaders being MPs and Councillors shall be done using a concrete development delivery marking scheme.

West fm states that a concrete leadership delivery marking scheme for sitting MPs and Councillors must consider and encompass the following:

1. The elected MP or Councillor ought to be able to make a summary report of the state in which he or she found the Constituency or Ward to be as at 1st January 2008 in terms of critical indicators like (a) the population numbers (b) levels of poverty (c) levels of unemployment (d) levels of insecurity (e) state of health facilities, (f) state of educational facilities (g) state of infrastructure (h) state of environment (i) state of agriculture as agribusiness (j) state  of commerce (k) levels of corruption and impunity and where now four years and seven months on the Constituency or Ward stands.  Can concrete verifiable positive growth returns on those parameters be furnished in writing and verbally by the incumbent MP or Councilors to his or her electorate?
2. The elected MP or Councillor ought to be able to make a summary of the annual National Budgetary allocations of the years 2008-2009, 2009-2010, 2010-2011, 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 that Parliament voted to be applied for the Recurrent Expenditures and Development Expenditures in the Constituency and for the Councillor the amount of Local Authority Transfer Funds (LATF) and locally collected levies that were allocated for expenditure in his Ward.  The elected MP and Councillor ought to be able to demonstrate that those Budgetary allocations voted for his Constituency or Ward were prudently and efficiently  expended to improve the service delivery to and for the infrastructures for the Constituency or ward.  That there was no corruption waste, pilferage or return of the budgetary resources unexpended. And if an MP, Councillor or aspiring MP, Senator, Governor, County Representative, Women Representative does not comprehend the lexicon of a National Budget and how it impacts on the Constituency, Ward, Western Province and North Rift then he or she has no business being an MP, Councillor or aspiring for any elective office.
3. The elected MP must be able to present a written summary report of how much Constituency  Development Fund (CDF) was received in each financial year (2008-2009, 2009-2010, 2010-2011, 2011-2012 and 2012-2013) and how the same was expended.  How many of the youth obtained employment in the implementation of CDF funds and how many electors of the Constituency or Ward were contracted to implement or supply goods for the CDF projects and LATF projects?
4. The elected MP or Councillor must be able to present a written report of the initiatives, efforts, lobbying undertaken by him or her to position the Constituency or Ward as an investment destination and the marketing, promotions, advocacy undertaken to attract, woo, local and international investors and donors to come and invest in the Constituency, Ward and thereby create jobs for the youth and stimulate the economy of the Constituency or Ward.

West fm states that a simple marking scheme for the leadership performance and accountability of incumbent Members of Parliament and Councillors can include the following:

• How many kilometers of new tarmac road and all weather earth roads have been constructed and completed under the watch of the incumbent
• How many kilometers of tarmac roads and earth roads that existed prior to 2008 have been properly maintained under the term of the incumbent
• How many bridges, footpath and small scale footpaths have been erected in the past five years?
• How many youth were able to get employment every year since 2008
• How many youth have been enrolled in local youth polytechnics and diploma awarding technical institutions every year to be trained in technical skills like carpentry, plumbing, masonry, electricians, mechanics etc?
• How many residents have moved up the economic ladder and are not considered as poor i.e. living on above Kshs. 200/= per day?
• How many residents have been connected to tap water?
• How many residents have been connected to electricity?
• How many students have each year joined university and other tertiary colleges
• How many youths, women have each year accessed the Youth Enterprise Development Fund and Women Enterprise Fund respectively and established income generating activities to better their lives
• How many new health facilities have been established?

Do all existing health facilities, hospitals have efficient health officers – doctors, nurses, clinical officers etc and have they had medicines and other necessities to guarantee proper health care?

How many police stations, posts have been established to provide security?  Do the police stations and posts have vehicles and enough officers to provide security?

West fm states that the performance indicators for marking incumbent MPs and Councillors are long and wide.  Members of Parliament are paid over 1 million shillings a month and Councillors over Kshs. 50,000/= a month so as to superintend, provide oversight over the utilization of National Budgetary resources allocated to their Constituencies and Wards.  They are equally obligated to lobby with the Government Ministries at Headquarters for the channelling of resources to their areas and to advocate, fight for the Executive Arm of Government to direct international grants, concessionary loans to their Constituencies, Wards or region.  Members of Parliament are paid hefty salaries and allowances to be watchdogs against corruption, waste, embezzlement of budgetary resources directed to their Constituencies and Wards.  They are not elected to be lords of corruption or accomplices and pawns of the corrupt.

West fm states that time to ask all questions on elected leaders accountability to the electorate is now.  After all teachers for example have every year to bear scrutiny of their performance through the national examinations their pupils and students have to sit at KCPE and KCSE respectively, why should MPs and Councillors not answer for their performance every year and finally in the 5th year before they are rated as success stories or absolute failures and the failures to be weeded from the elective offices.

Poverty, unemployment, ignorance, diseases, hopelessness, despair can only be weeded from the midst and in the homes  of Western Province and North Rift if public servants who are mandated to apply budgetary resources for service delivery and infrastructure development together with elected Members Of Parliament and Councillors who are mandated to provide oversight over prudent utilization of budgetary resources are held to the sword and to account that every cent of the budgetary resources is not swindled, pilfered, embezzled.

The Promises and Dreams of the Constitution of Kenya 2010 will only be realized if the elected leadership and Public Servants are thoroughly marked, scrutinized held accountable on the National Values and Principles of Governance at Article 10.  The electorate cannot delegate that responsibility to the same persons who are to be marked and audited. 

WEST FM EDITORIAL©2012