The lucky hague two...

Our esteemed president and prime minister alongside the cabinet recently decided and announced to the public that the government would cater for the legal fees of two of its “workers.” The vice president even went as far as describing the whole charade as “compensation in line with the Workman’s Compensation Act.” Their line of thinking is that since the two top government officials were working on behalf of the government and for the government it was their right as government employees. And this got me thinking, if I was involved in a lawsuit, would my employer willingly offer to pay the full legal fees for me? Or would I have to blackmail him for him to do so…

Many Kenyans, find this hard to believe and I understand why. First of all, we have people in some parts of the country who are dying of hunger! Seriously? To add salt onto an injury, the government is already asking for aid, to break it down for you, it means the country is begging other countries for donations so that these people can get fed. Why should donors help a country that is willing to foot a billion Kshs bill which the said individuals can comfortably pay?

Secondly, IDPs are still visibly living in torn tents that leak every time it rains, wear tattered clothes that barely hide their nakedness, eat from tins (not that there’s much to eat anyway) and depend on the handouts from other merciful Kenyans. These people have been living in this uncertainty and poverty since the year 2007/8 and the people who forced them into that kind of life are somewhat rubbing it in, like what are you going to do about it? And truth be told, there’s not much I can possibly do…after all, am just a common mwananchi with nothing to show for it…a mere Wanjiku.

A friend, after hearing about this plot by the government, joked about how he could not live in such a country filled with impunity and vowed to move away to another country. I put myself in the person living in an IDP camp and thought…does this person have that option? Who will speak for him? It made me sad, it really did.
The third and final fact that just totally annoys me is the fact that the amount mentioned, will come out of my pocket…we are a struggling nation but yet most of the tax payers money is spent on Government payroll and expenses like carpets, building toilets and legal fees for already rich persons!!! This is utter madness! But then again, what can we do but sit and pray and hope that the good Lord touches their hearts and makes them feel guilt beyond mankind’s imagination…in the meantime, let me sit here and work hard so that taxes can be deducted from my salary to pay for someone’s legal fees, taxes from my hard-earned money which I can’t even enjoy at the end of the month because after all the deductions on my paycheck, the landlord is anxiously waiting for his share, and the mama mboga wants her deni cleared, and the monthly shopping needs to be done, and the school fees needs to be cleared, the mortgage, the car insurance…sigh..if only my boss was as philanthropic as our governemt…