It is important to look at this in context. Members of Parliament have no job description, unlike traditional professions, and, indeed, unlike the vast majority of jobs across the country, which come with generally accepted and agreed upon responsibilities and codes of conduct.
A cursory glance at how MPs describe their jobs unravels a vast array of inconsistency in how they view their self-assembled job descriptions. They are eloquent in their clear absence of any shared understanding of what the MP’s job entails
The Westminster system of government, on which the Kenyan Parliament is based, has two traditional roles. The first is to consider, refine and pass legislation. In other words, to establish policy and pass laws.
The second is to hold government accountable for its administration of the laws and to authorise the expenditure of required funds. That is, to ensure the laws are being carried out properly, and that our hard-earned taxes are being spent responsibly.
To be fair to them, MPs perform a variety of roles in addition to those outlined above. Most notably, they are also responsible for the National Government Constituency Development Fund and party duties that have emerged with a growing population, a bicameral Parliament and the evolution of Kenya’s multiparty system. As it turns out, modern politics and political life are much more complicated than the classic Westminster description suggests, or as depicted in Article 95 of the Constitution, outlining the functions of Parliament.
Nonetheless, it should concern Kenyans that very few MPs in the 13th Parliament would describe their jobs in terms consonant with the Constitution. In fact, when you ask MPs to describe their role and how they view the job, there are nearly as many responses as there are MPs. The truth is that our MPs lack a shared understanding of the job’s key components, responsibilities and expectations. Indeed, only a few would mention holding a government accountable as part of their job.
This immense variation in perception should give pause to anyone concerned with the political process and consolidation of democracy. If MPs don’t even share a general agreement as to why they are in the August House and what they are supposed to be doing there, how can Kenyans have an understanding of what to expect from their elected representatives?
This sorry state is exacerbated by the fact that our MPs come to politics with a wide variety of pre-parliamentary backgrounds, careers and expressed motivations. Parliament tends to attract the most bizarre of characters. Serving on the same parliamentary committee you find a professor, lawyer, washwash expert, school dropout, career thief and all sorts of other miscreants, and some dedicated souls.
Now, Kenya is a diverse society culturally, regionally, economically and politically and some would be of the view that varied descriptions of a MPs’ role are inevitable and healthy. But surely we can do better than the current inconsistent, and even contradictory, understanding of what an MP is supposed to do.
When MPs are confused as to their job description, their ability to do their jobs effectively is diminished. When roles and responsibilities are not clear in any organisation, problems ensue. Critical tasks will be overlooked, or efforts will be duplicated. Important work will not be achieved. These issues also tend to be amplified during times of economic uncertainty such as those are we are in, times that especially demand a clear-headed, well-reasoned response from our elected leaders, even when the path forward is not immediately apparent.
Without an agreed-upon sense of purpose, measures of success will be equally unclear. In politics, this prompts Parliamentarians to fall back on what is the simplest, most mundane and most immediate indication of success – getting re-elected. We need a MP fit for purpose.
The writer teaches Globalisation and International Development at Pwani University
