Ruto’s ‘Hustler’ CSs just don’t impress me much – The Star Kenya

First of all, and this is so unlikely to happen it could be labelled a fantasy, they could commit to making an honest annual public wealth declaration of personal or private financial or business interests that they and their immediate families or business partners may have.

This would mean that their wealth could be tracked every year that they hold public office. This way, anyone who had an interest could see if they had made money, other than salaries and allowances, from being a member of the Cabinet.

If they or their families were found to have unduly benefited from their posts, then they would face sanctions, such as having their assets seized until they could be sensibly explained. 

If they did this, they might even convince the President and Deputy President to do the same, and the President could then exert his not inconsiderable influence on elected officials to do the same. That would be pretty impressive, for starters.

The second unlikely thing the hustler Cabinet could do is to show how much they are in it purely for the public service.

They could do this by saying that as they are several times richer than the average working Kenyan, they will not be taking a cent in salaries or allowances and donate these monies to the Hustler Fund or back to the Treasury, where they could be used to improve the lives of poor Kenyans.

After all, we, the taxpayers, are already paying for their GK cars, motorcades, home and personal security.

Here in SA, they have a ministerial handbook that provides a guide for benefits, tools of trade and allowances to which ministers, deputy ministers, premiers (like governors in Kenya) and members of the Executive Council (like the County Executive Committee) are entitled.

Recently, it emerged that President Cyril Ramaphosa, who is up for re-election in the ANC this December, had made changes to the handbook, which effectively meant that the taxpayer had to pay for all the electricity and water bills for ministers and their deputies at official residences. 

There was public outcry and the presidency was forced to pedal back the  changes with an announcement that there would be a review of the ministerial guidelines and that from now on, these matters would be handled by a neutral structure.

This kind of thing would probably never happen in the land of ‘Mta Do’? But we can live in hope.