OPINION: Kenyans will punish legislators for any constitutional amendments

As surprise, celebrations, or disappointments stream in following the announcement that Senator Gloria Orwoba lost her nominated position after Speaker Amason Kingi officially declared her seat vacant, all parliamentarians should know that Kenyans are keen to politically punish them.

Senator Orwoba was well known for her fight against period shaming and various forms of bullying both by colleagues and otherwise, however, her infringements against various parties seem to have sealed her fate in an unfortunate series of political events.

Without dwelling on the merits of her circumstances, or the fact that she would be considered a junior parliamentarian on account of her nomination as opposed to election, any politician should take this as symbolic of how Kenyans are still figuratively out for blood on account of their conduct.

Kenyans are keenly watching the 2025 tax lawmaking process and the parliamentary efforts to mutilate their sacrosanct supreme law through a manipulative dangling of carrots to amend the constitution for control of funds already declared illegal by the judiciary.

Parliament over a cumulative course of 15 years has absconded so much on its duty, especially in relation to decision making around public finances, that the occupants of the august house do not deserve the courtesy of being referred to as honourable anymore.

Brazenly, they have proposed and passed weak legislation such as the conflict-of-interest bill. How can they be considered honourable if they think it’s okay to pass a law allowing the evasion of enforcement and weakening of asset declaration plus forfeiture?

How can they think that in a country with a deep desire to holistically espouse zero tolerance for corruption, it is okay to develop legislation that reduces public access to information, creates legal conflict, and allows for new potential abuses in a context of already very layered injustice?

Such open shamelessness has ultimately dehumanised the country into a toxic mix of unhealthy vitriol and increasing violence that is manifesting itself politically as is being speculated in the death of Honourable Charles Ong'ondo Were or socially in the form of the exploding femicide crisis.

Legislators need to work hard in developing the requisite law that will deliver countrywide transformation rather than becoming leprechaun demigods with wads of cash eager to duplicate executive functions especially in rural areas.

Undeniably, the constitutional development fund has made an enormous contribution to local advancements in health or education, however, parliamentarians need to know that a lot more needs to be done beyond the expediency of brick-and-mortar projects.

Countrywide transformation desperately needs to respond to ‘zillenial’ stagnation due to unemployment and the subsequent lack of social mobility through ensuring access to credit for entrepreneurship plus visionary industrial policy to unlock the establishment of large, macro, or mega factories in Kenya.

All parliamentarians in the senate and the assembly should fervently ensure that any malfeasance, wastage, or mistreatment of resources in relation to education, health, and water is a high crime with the most severe punishments executed without fear or favour.

This is as opposed to the culture surrounding politicians that their egregious actions and decisions are simple misdemeanours to be passed onto helpless citizens who will not only pick up the tab but will still beg and worship at their feet.

Politicians should therefore not run away from the country’s history, which is very clear about what is the overall negative consequences of constitutional amendments before optimisation of existing democratic rights and responsibilities.

The last dictatorship pounced on the body politic based on constitutional amendments, making a hybrid mongrel of existing structures. If legislators continue to push for such again, they will be guilty of jeopardising Kenyan democracy, and punishment will be absolutely clear at the next ballot.

The author is the chief executive of the International Relations Society of Kenya (IRSK) and Regional Coordinator of the East African Tax and Governance Network (EATGN).

Twitter: @lennwanyama