KAIKAI’S KICKER: After Bunge Tower, fix the purpose of Bunge

On my kicker tonight, Members of Parliament have just received a massive upgrade through the inauguration of the multi-billion shilling Bunge Tower. Depending on where you stand, the imposing Bunge Tower represents either modernization on one hand and controversy on the other. Let's dispense off with the latter; the tower conceived in 2009, had an initial budget of Ksh.5.8 billion. That was revised later to Ksh.7.1 billion. And when it was launched last week, we were told it cost a whooping Ksh.9.6 billion. Of course, you know the Kenyan story when it comes to public projects.

On the modernisation bit, there is nothing like it around the region. Nothing that high and nothing that refined. Talking of interiors; you know, high speed lifts, a gym here, a fancy restaurant, a fully equipped kitchen and hey, a good view of the city, if not of the country. At the official opening, President William Ruto saw an opportunity for cost-cutting, saying there will be no more requests for travel to hotels, because the new building has fancy committee rooms. The President then said that Kenyans expect world class representation and oversight from a team of Members of Parliament occupying what should be a world class office block. Now, that building looks good, it also looks prestigious, but it sits at odds with the trend of a Parliament that has so far failed to assert its place in the leadership landscape in the same way the Bunge Tower has pronounced itself over the Nairobi skyline.

Until something drastic changes about the conduct of Parliamentary affairs, Bunge Tower will stick out sorely as would a tortoise in a speed boat. There is so much to fix about the purpose of Bunge because so much has been lost about it especially in the 13th Parliament.

First, the 13th Parliament has displayed symptoms of self esteem issues. And has a couple of times appeared in doubt of its own institutional place in the Constitution. This is the Parliament that some say in loud whispers is run from the lush lawns of State House; a Parliament that fits the critics’ standard description of an appendage of the Executive. This Parliament though modelled on the robust structures of the american houses of Congress, is a house held hostage by political loyalties, personality cult, and traces of old times sycophancy.

It is a timid house where party politics rather than institutional culture dominate the mindset of the house. The Constitution of Kenya 2010 envisioned a robust unit capable of holding the Executive to account. The 13th Parliament has so far delivered the opposite. It is a house constantly held to account by the Executive. And so a good building is not enough.

Parliament needs to fix the peoples' bit of things. On the quality of representation, efforts should be made to improve the quality of discourse on the floor of the house. Let us bring back quotable quotes from Parliamentary debates. Let us see the return of debate performers of the kind standing orders Master Martin Shikuku would be proud of. Let the house through its open debate, inspire young, well raised children to make Parliamentary politics their calling, again. Let the young and the old see the purpose of Parliament yet again; and that is a house that has absolute fidelity to the mantra of "the welfare of society and the just government of the people."

So it takes more than a fancy 27-floor office block. It will come down to the quality of those who people the building and the quality of the collective output of the institution that is supposed to be an independent robust arm of government.

That is my kicker.