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Zimbabwe: Learn from the experience of...
2008-07-02 10:22:23
By Hannah Mwandoloma, Dodoma
The Speaker of Kenya National Assembly, Kenneth Marende, yesterday called on Tanzanian legislators to persuade Zimbabwe to learn from Kenya`s experience and form a government of national unity.
Marende, who visited the National Assembly yesterday in Dodoma in the company of several Kenyan legislators and senior parliamentary staff, said Tanzania had made Kenyans realise the mistakes they had committed and were now moving on for a better change.
``We have learnt from our past mistakes. The post election violence caused a thousand people to lose their lives. Our country’s economy had been shattered. There had been rising ethnic tension and thousands of people had been displaced. But today, all this is history,`` said Marende.
He praised President Jakaya Kikwete for persuading President Mwai Kibaki and Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga into seeing that Kenya as a nation was much more important than their individual interests.
Marende said ever since Kibaki and Odinga signed an agreement to share power by dividing the cabinet positions on 50-50 per cent basis and amending the constitution so as to create a Prime Minister`s position, Kenya had never looked back.
``We are now seeking to find long term solutions, including reviewing the constitution, so as to reclaim our position after the shameful occurrences,`` Marende said.
Jamleck Kamau, a legislator on Party of the National Unit (PNU) ticket told the House that Kenyans had gone crazy; noting that what happened could not be justified by any reasonable explanations.
``I believe we went mad, witnessing people getting burnt in a church and some intentionally pushing children into the torched house. These cannot be actions of sane persons. We love Kikwete because he made us see the light. I cannot wait for the federation, so that we East Africans become really one,`` said Kamau.
Another Kenyan MP, Joseph Lekuton (KANU), who is in charge of MP`s welfare, said that if legislators were poorly paid, they were likely to be caught up in corruption.
Marende revealed to the House that an MP in Kenya got a Kshs 600,000/- monthly wage, which is equivalent to Tshs 12m/-, adding that even when a legislator lost an election, he was pensionable until he died.
Touching on gender balance in the Kenyan parliament in response to a question, Marende said their parliament has a total of 222 MPs, among them only 23 are women.
He said 210 MPs were elected and 12 had been nominated.
Responding to a query by John Cheyo (UDP-East Bariadi) who wanted to know the future and role of political parties in Kenya, Marende said Kenya had a total of 200 political parties but only 23 were represented in Parliament.
He said the plan was to reduce the number of political parties, since most of them had no intention of serving the country, but only registered for the sake of getting into elections.
Marende said Kenya has no official opposition because no opposition party secured enough members to qualify for the position.
The Speaker of the Kenyan parliament arrived in Dodoma on Monday, accompanied by a delegation of eight MPs and senior House staff.
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