waheshimiwa

Let’s vet top appointees

I hear in neighbouring Uganda, the Bunge has to checkout all presidential appointees. If they sense a disaster in a certain appointment, the MPs simply reject the president’s choice. This is just great!

 

To enhance the little democracy we have Bongo, we should have such a system, not today but yesterday.

Some appointments are so suspicious that they border on the ridiculous. I have seen on TV, some of our parliamentarians who can hardly read.

I am sure if you go closer to them you might find out that they can hardly write their own names. But you can bet that they can count their allowances and many of them are busy ‘getting’ those PhDs from the universities of Kusadikika. 

 

The trouble is, after elections there is the ‘thanks giving’ to all those who ‘helped’ the Big Man’s march to Ikulu, whose name we will keep classified for now, or they say,  ‘jina tunaliminya’.

 

The odd thing about politics is that, like the rest of us, even politicians have a past. Now real politicians are basically like chameleons. They can change their colour at a click of your fingers.

But most African politicians can’t escape from their past – a thing which can be quite embarrassing in the future, especially in a country with a healthy and reliable grapevine like ours.

 

I may be wrong to talk about African politicians. I should say ‘politicians’ per se. Former US President Bill Clinton admitted to have done things which were ‘inappropriate’ with one Monica Lewinsky, while in the White House.

 

Former British PM John Major and a Cabinet member Edwina Curry had a fling when he was in power. In a Cabinet reshuffle he forgot to reappoint her for a post and she went to the vibrant British press and sang like a canary, embarrassing the Bwana Mkubwa like hell.

 

I mean if we had a vetting by Parliament, some guys would simply disappear. Right now if you ask for someone’s qualifications you might end up with embarrassing answers. PD (President’s Buddy – Hons),

MwR (Mshikaji wa Rais - Upper Second Degree)

 

For example, ask a guy why he has the post he is in. You might get a reply like this: “I am the Mkuu’s buddy. He and I have been friends for years. My wife is also the friend of the First Lady.”

 

Ask a lady: “Sister, what makes you think that you qualify for this important and sensitive job?” An MP asks in the Bunge.

 

“Ah, I think I qualify because I am the President’s ka-chick. He is sooo-o-o sweet, isn’t he?” The lady tells the Bunge with a la-di-da voice.

 

Ask others guys, who are sailing through life clinging on their parents coat-tails: “I am my fathers’ son or daughter. I am planning to run for President because my father was a President.”

Yes, we might get such idiosyncrasies in the future.

 

As I said, we all have a past and that past can catch-up with us in the future! But the rest of us hate to be victims for one man’s or woman’s past.

 

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