A South African Member of Parliament has expressed the desire for his country to emulate the legislative system and technical support offered to his Kenyan compatriots.
Nqabayomzi Kwankwa arrived in Nairobi on Wednesday, February 5 to attend a two-day consultative meeting with parliamentarians from East Africa.
Kwankwa had the pleasure to engage nominated Senator Isaac Mwaura on Thursday, February 6, and together they visited the Albinism Society of Kenya.
He spent the rest of his day with the Jubilee legislator, later upon which he took to Twitter to draw the contrasts between the lives of South African and Kenyan legislators.
"Spending a day with Hon. Dr Mwaura today in Nairobi, I realized that I am an MP for a wrong country," Kwankwa's tweet read in part.
"MPs here have a driver, a bodyguard, a PA, a researcher, a communications officer and an administrative assistant. In SA, we fend for ourselves. We don’t even have PAs," he remarked.
The South African legislator argued that the lack of technical support for MPs in his country had negative effects on the quality of their inputs and contributions, as well as their ability to effectively oversee the work of government.
He was seconded by a Ngobeni Sandile who alleged to have worked for the august house in the country and had his fair share of challenges in executing his mandate.
"I worked in Parliament most MPs lack the support staff to brief about technical subject matters to be discussed in portfolio committees, at least a researcher per MP," Sandile opined.
While engaging Kwankwa, another legislator in the SA parliament, Bantu Holomisa conceded to facing challenges despite allegedly bragging the best constitution in Africa.
"I understand your frustration but Kenya has been there long before us. However, we may have to benchmark with Kenya. Although we are renowned with the best constitution in the continent or world the support systems to SA MPs are a challenge," Holomisa stated.
Kwankwa argued that they as parliamentarians needed better support in ensuring they fully execute their mandate, as well as to benchmark from other legislative processes around the continent and the world.
"Fact is SA MPs lack the requisite technical support they need to effectively oversee the work of government. To build a better model, we need to draw from the strengths of various models in Africa and the world at large. The status quo is disastrous," Kwankwa remarked.
However, his arguments did not resonat6e well with a section of members of the public, probably from his country who castigated him for promoting such a system (Kenya's).
They argued that the pronouncements from the legislator gave a clear indication of no intention to serve the public by cutting back on wasteful or unnecessary expenditure.
"I don’t believe this. How can you praise such wastage? Have you not seen the poverty and absolute desperation of the citizens of the state you are visiting? Have you not seen how our fallow African brothers are suffering under these useless politician friends of yours," Sharon Nambeleni ridiculed.
"The future of Africa is at risk if younger politicians like you can see privileges for politicians as something to be celebrated. You have not even bothered to notice that the lives of ordinary people don't benefit from which you gloat about," another argued.
Joining in on the online debate, a Kenyan urged members of the public to enlighten themselves on matters political, highlighting that legislators in Kenya only agreed when it came to benefiting themselves.
"South Africans are laughing at us Kenyans. Sir, we're powerless and divided along our tribal lines and they take advantage of that. The MPs only unite when passing legislation to increase their pay and give themselves other benefits," moniker philosopher254 stated.
Netizens expressed their displeasure at the lives legislators lead, stating that they only focused on themselves while the public struggled one election cycle after another.
