A hunter, not very bold, was searching for the tracks of a lion. He asked a man felling oaks in the forest if he had seen any marks of his footsteps or knew where his lair was. "I will," said the man, "at once show you the lion himself."
The hunter, turning very pale and chattering with his teeth from fear, replied, "No, thank you. I did not ask that; it is his track only I am in search of, not the lion himself."
It is said that the hero is brave in deeds as well as words.
There has been a lot of debate on who is responsible for the high fuel prices that have rocked the country. The truth is that the fuel prices are really hurting Kenyans because once they skyrocket, they affect all facets of our lives.
High fuel prices mean that the cost of electricity goes up and consequently the cost of production of major basic commodities also skyrockets. It is therefore important to ensure that fuel prices are at a level that does not see an increase in the cost of basic commodities.
We have seen Kenyans, MPs especially, running around blaming President Uhuru Kenyatta and his administration for the high fuel prices. While the Executive is not entirely blameless, it does not work in a vacuum.
The spirit of the separation of powers is clear in our dispensation and thus MPs cannot start blaming the President for their legislative actions. Parliament must take the blame for the actions it took that led to the increase in fuel prices.
Some MPs have claimed that the President vetoed their decision when he sent his reservations on the issue in 2018. However, what MPs are not telling Kenyans is that they have the power to overturn the President’s reservations but failed to do so.
It is true that the proposal came from the Executive, but many other proposals have come to Parliament and were defeated. This is because the Executive cannot make policies without the approval of Parliament.
This is particularly important because when Kenyans enacted the 2010 Constitution, they aimed at having a governance structure that has checks and balances. If MPs failed to deal with the proposal by the Executive when the matter came to the floor, Parliament cannot come back and blame the President.
As Speaker Justin Muturi advised the MPs recently, it was not helpful to keep talking about the high fuel prices outside Parliament. The best way is to do what happened last week where petitions were tabled in the House and now MPs can deal with the matter at the committee level and on the floor.
Now that those proposals are before MPs, they can undo their actions and stop blaming the President for their failings.
MPs can now act on the words they have been telling mwananchi and tame the rising cost of fuel. If they do really care about Kenyans and the country, they should look at the issue critically.
I say critically because while it is important to keep the cost of fuel down, Parliament must also put in place policies that ensure that the government is able to raise enough revenues to meet its obligations.
MPs are the ones who scrutinise the budget and the revenue measures proposed by the Executive and therefore Parliament should be able to move things around.
The goal should be to ensure that the government does not lose revenue while at the same time ensuring that mwananchi is not hurt by fuel prices that lead to a high cost of living.
I'm sure the MPs can rise to the occasion and give the country a solution that will push the cost of living down, especially given that we are still in a pandemic.
Parliament can persuade the Executive with clear proposals that bring down the cost of fuel, as well as that of living, without hurting revenues as this would slow down development.
