This archive report was first published on 13 July 2019.
On July 13, 2019, we reflect on an opinion piece by lawyer Ahmednasir Abdullahi published in the Nation on August 2, 2014. The piece, titled 'With Muturi as speaker, Kenya is doomed', reads like a mirror prophecy five years later.
At the time, President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Jubilee coalition team had taken office for his first term, and the country was full of optimism. However, lawyer Abdullahi argued that the country's problems would start and end with having Justin Bedan Njoka Muturi as the head of the Legislative arm of the government.
Abdullahi contended that Muturi's tenure as Speaker would be a calamitous and sacrilegious defilement of the Constitution. He warned that Muturi would reduce the National Assembly into a smouldering rubble of parliamentary tomfoolery, making it a rogue institution unaccountable to anyone.
Five years down the line, even the most optimistic Kenyan cannot afford to question the aptness of Abdullahi's description of Muturi. However, one aspect of the Speaker's lethal flaws that we were not warned of is his greed.
During his reign, Muturi has led his House on a plunder trip of the nation on a magnitude never seen before. It's a unanimous vote whenever the 'motion' of making more money from the taxpayer is brought before the floor of Parliament.
The Speaker's defence of the continued increase in MPs' pay, despite the country's economic struggles, is utterly insensitive. He justifies the increase, saying it will motivate MPs to attend sessions more regularly, while more than half the population lives on less than a hundred shillings a day.
It's a worrying trend that has seen MPs' pay increase from Sh1 million to Sh2.9 million in less than a year, including absurd allowances. The President should have heeded his lawyer's advice and saved us this massive robbery.
