Mzalendo Vox Pop is a feature where we open up our blog to our readers to share their views on their constituency or on matters related to Parliament.
Background: I am a resident of Ndia Constituency in the County of Kirinyaga, born and bred in this constituency, I have lived here for all my lifetime and privileged to work at home and therefore understand the dynamics in the constituency well. The real picture of the constituency isn't the one always painted by the media and in particular Royal Media Services (RMS) in their quest to campaign for the
current member of parliament and Minister for Nairobi Metropolitan, Njeru Githae. My friends usually tell me that I am lucky to come from Ndia constituency, they think of it as a Silicon valley of sort, however, this isn't the reality, there are so many challenges facing this constituency.
Challenges in the constituency: One of the biggest challenge is that of illiteracy, in-terms of lack of knowledge as far as voting for the right leaders is concerned. This has led to continual voting of people who do not care and mind about the people who put them to power in the first place and therefore engaging in pure political forgetting the masses year in, year out. For example, the current MP usually remembers the electorates a few months to elections, he comes with gifts in form of firewood, maize and wheat flour to woo the uneducated and illiterate to sing and dance to his tune.
Another challenge is that of incompetent leaders who manage the CDF and constituency bursary kitties. The current MP has filled the management committees with his cronies who are doing nothing but milk the kitties. For example, during the financial year 2009-2010, apparently needy students in colleges and universities were awarded bursaries, however, the money never reached the schools in which the students studied in. This is due to the ineptness and potency posed by the managing committees.
What would you like to change: While our constituency is endowed with rivers and we are lucky to have Sagana river pass in our constituency, we still over-rely on rain fed agriculture. In the last season the rains have not been that reliable, therefore this will lead to many of the constituents who rely on farming to meet their daily needs go hungry, ironic that there are rivers which when the waters are harnessed for agricultural use by the hardworking people around the constituency can bear good fruits.
Would you vote for your MP again?: With all that on my mind I wouldn't give my MP a second chance, if anything I would start the process of recalling him from parliament if the clause worked right away.
Who are the MPs potential challengers?: There is a competent lady known as Dr. Marion Mutugi a JKUAT don who if given a chance can take the constituency to the heights it desires to be in as far as agriculture is concerned. She has tried a lot to encourage farmers to plant alternative crops to maize and beans, she has gone a step ahead to introduce organic farming in the constituency. Another individual who poses a threat to the MP's ambition of another term is Maina Kiranga a lawyer by profession who currently works with USAID. He has been instrumental in funding the youth groups and encouraging them to leave immoral behavior so that they can earn a living from their own hard work.
What would you tell your MP if you met them?: If the MP wants my vote, one way of redeeming his fall is by reconstituting the CDF committees...some that are made up of people who never saw the door of a classroom. In addition, he has neglected the constituency and left it in the hands of his mouthpiece - one Muriithi Kang'ara who dictates on what happens when. Mark you, the mouthpiece is a class 2 drop-out as word goes around the constituency. This has rendered the MP inaccessible to the masses who elected him since for one of his constituent to see him he has to vetted by the mouthpiece and given an appointment on whether or not to see their MP. He needs to move out of the shadow of this guy.
Also, there is something else that the MP needs to come out in the open and either deny or accept whether it's true or false, in the past week or so, the provincial administration here was involved in the exercise of collecting signatures in support for a withdrawal of Kenya from the ICC process. In addition, there is talk that the signatures collected would be used to as a basis to force the prime-minister out of office. This leaves me with questions on the conduct of the MP, being a lawyer why does he want to support impunity and let the planners and organizers of chaos walk free without any punishment? Is this what he stands for being a lawyer? Impunity? Under whose directions and instructions were the provincial administration acting on? Is it a government project that we don't know of.
There are so many things that he should address, he should also stop acting all grandiose and beyond reproach, he should remember that his was a contested win and he has become so unpopular now!
Posted by Mzalendo Editor on March 8, 2011
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