”Why didn’t you prevent this?” is a question Kenyans may start asking legislators soon, concerning a report about the government’s purchase of luxury vehicles in 2003 and 2004.
Entitled Living Large: Counting the Cost of Official Extravagance in Kenya, the 23-page document was issued last week by the local chapter of Transparency International (TI) — an anti-corruption watchdog based in Berlin — and the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR), a government body.
It states that between January 2003 and September 2004, the National Rainbow Coalition government spent about $12-million on cars that were mostly for the personal use of senior government officials. (President Mwai Kibaki’s government came to power in December 2002.)
The vehicles included 57 Mercedes Benzes, as well as Land Cruisers, Mitsubishi Pajeros, Range Rovers, Nissan Terranos and Nissan Patrols.
”The E-class [Mercedes Benz] appears to be a particularly popular trophy/status symbol,” the report notes — before giving a car reviewer’s description of this model in which the virtues of ”ambient cabin lighting” (”like a fancy nightlight in the bathroom”), ”dual-zone climate control” and ”rain-sensing windshield wipers” are extolled.
”Like other Mercedes cars, the E-class is remarkably well made, but in achieving the objective of ferrying a person from one place to another in a cost-effective manner, these features are totally unnecessary,” the document adds.
Instead, say TI Kenya and the KNCHR, the $12-million could have been used to make significant poverty reductions in almost any of 31 deprived constituencies referred to in the investigation. The money could also have provided a year’s supply of anti-retrovirals to 147 000 people; at present, only 11 000 of the 270 000 HIV-positive Kenyans who need the drugs are receiving them.
In addition, the $12-million substantially exceeded what the government spent over the 2003/04 financial year on controlling malaria — ”the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in Kenya”, says the report.
Parliamentarians
But what, then, of parliamentarians who were put in office to ensure the government addresses the needs of Kenyans? Did they have a role in checking this extravagance?
Cyprian Nyamwamu — CEO of the National Convention Executive Council, a reform lobby group — says legislators lack the means to interrogate budgets properly.
”Without a PBO [Parliament Budget office], it is difficult for Parliament to analyse ministerial spending and control the Budget so that government spending is not ‘lopsided’ on the wrong things — like the Mercedes Benz,” he says.
Opposition MP Maoka Maore agrees, saying legislators currently approve the Budget in its entirety, and that details of how various ministries can spend the funds they receive slip through the cracks.
”Within the Budget, you may find ‘administrative budget lines’ allocated to certain ministries; this may be where the money for purchasing the posh vehicles is hidden,” he says.
”This makes it difficult for us members of Parliament to act since we do not micro-manage the affairs of government ministries. This is where the PBO comes in handy.”
To date, efforts to set up a PBO have been unsuccessful.
In 2002, MP Oloo Aringo tabled a motion seeking to establish such an office, so that legislators could have a greater say in the management of Kenyan finances. However, the motion was shot down.
But even in the absence of a PBO, anti-corruption campaigners believe there are still steps that can be taken to prevent a repeat of the 2003/04 car-buying spree.
”We need a government vehicle policy stating clearly that government must purchase reasonable cars for its officials at all levels,” says Mwalimu Mati, executive director of TI Kenya. ”The policy must also indicate how government vehicles should be used: for official purposes only, and not for taking spouses and children for shopping as is the case now.”
Mati has also challenged the government to emulate the policies of neighbouring Rwanda, which decided about a year ago to sell various high-powered official vehicles (raising about $3,5-million by May 2005, according to the report). This followed concerns over the amount of public money being spent on official vehicles.
In addition, Nairobi could take inspiration from assassinated Burkinan president Thomas Sankara, who sold many of his country’s government-owned Mercedes Benzes in favour of the far cheaper Renault 5. Sankara was killed in 1987.
Either way, campaigners aiming to break official allegiance to Mercedes Benzes (and other luxury vehicles) are likely to have a tough fight on their hands. So popular is the Mercedes Benz that the name of the vehicle has made its way into one of Kenya’s official languages, Kiswahili.
The term ”wabenzi” (”wa” meaning people) is used to refer to those who drive expensive cars such as Mercedes Benzes, and — more generally — to wealthy and influential persons.
The release of the report by TI Kenya and the KNCHR comes as the government is battling charges of corruption made in a dossier by John Githongo, former permanent secretary for governance and ethics.
Githongo has implicated four ministers in shady deals with a fictitious firm, Anglo Leasing and Finance. One of the officials, David Mwiraria, resigned his post as finance minister last week over the allegations. — IPS