PUBLISHED BY THE MARSGROUP KENYA

Civil Society Leaders in Pursuit of Democracy and Accountability August 7, 2007 A joint statement of the Civil Society in Kenya and former Members of the Kenya National Assembly THE PLAN TO STOP KENYA’S ROGUE PARLIAMENT’S GRATUITY THEFT AND ITS ASSAULT ON PRESS FREEDOM Last week, our network of Kenyan Civil society organisations, former members of Parliament and Kenyans of goodwill exercised their inalienable rights, given to each one of them by sections 79 and 80 of the Constitution of Kenya, to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly. They were exercising their rights under the Constitution of Kenya in order to try and prevent the planned theft of Ksh 1.4 billion of taxpayers funds by MPS colluding with the Minister for Finance. In the process fifteen members of our Network were arrested, assaulted, harassed and involved in a road accident that was caused by wayward police officers that nearly killed not only our three members Mwalimu Mati, Ouma Odera and Okoiti Omtatah but also the police officers themselves. From that week of action; The arrested members of our network were released on orders of the high court and others on cash bail awaiting prosecution by the same police force that acted illegally in curtailing the rights of Kenyans to assemble.; We have since developed a strategy to defeat these retrogressive acts of the police force. Our network secured an important ruling Anne Njogu v Republic which restated the Constitution of Kenya’s prohibition on detention of arrested persons beyond 24 hours in non-capital cases We raised massive awareness on the gratuity theft that MPs are planning. 96.2 percent of the people of Kenya condemned the greed by MPs. We exposed the rot, corruption and torture going on in Kenyan police cells. We have since unveiled a proactive strategy to ensure that Human rights are secured within a rule of just laws framework. Having won the battle of the police cells, we now are back to the just war that we set out to win in the first place. We unequivocally oppose the proposed payment of gratuity to current Members of Parliament in Kenya. We object to this greedy plan. It is criminal that 222 MPs in the 9th Parliament are conspiring to award themselves an amount equivalent to the annual disbursement under the famous Youth Fund; which was intended to raise 79.1% of the population of Kenya who are youth out of poverty. 222 MPS want to award themselves an amount equivalent to what they gave to 21,248,984 Kenyan youth at a time when a Member of Parliament earns in a month what a worker in industrial area works for 10 years to earn! Raw greed indeed! Lazy parliament We also say that the payment of gratuities to MPs in the 9th Parliament is unwarranted first and foremost because they are under-performers who are already paid much more than almost all parliamentarians in the world. This Parliament has distinguished itself by being the only Parliament since Independence which has had no constitutional input – neither adding nor taking away a single comma or full stop to our Constitution. It has done this despite having the people’s explicit mandate given on December 27th 2002 when Kenyans voted for them to change our Constitution to enhance freedoms of the individual and to entrench equity and good governance. Instead they have allowed the Government to embark on a plan to roll back our Constitutional rights in a slow campaign of mass arrests, police brutality and even shootings. Parliament has failed to defend our collective Constitutional rights therefore to life and limb. Even as we speak, the Commissioner of the Kenya Police Force, Brigadier Ali, is trying to mislead Kenyans that unless he is notified, it is illegal for Kenyans to meet each other and speak with one voice. This is nonsense. And what he is doing should be stopped. The 9th Parliament has failed to provide leadership in constitutional reform and has actually served to obstruct whatever progressive acts have emanated from outside the House. It has suffered from such a degree of lack of quorum that in 2007 the budget has on several occasions been debated by less than 10 MPs and billions of shillings passed completely un-scrutinised by our so called representatives. Only a handful of MPs were present when the unconstitutional Media Bill was passed – which means that as their right to freedom of expression and a free press was being assaulted by the Government, Kenyans were totally unrepresented. And now Kenyans are being asked to give all MPs 6 million shillings each for costing us our freedom, and allowing the Government another step to its goal of dictatorship. Collusion with the executive MPs in the 9th Parliament seem to think they are above the law. Only last October the Attorney General said that 65 MPs (one out of every four) could have been charged for mileage fraud, and decided to “temper justice with mercy and forbear prosecution.” It seems that the reason they raised President Mwai Kibaki pay perk was to “bribe him” to offer them this loot and look to the other side as Minister Kimunya signs out billions to help them campaign and ensure that they perpetually rule over Kenya in this style. It is even more disturbing to recall that these MPs shall nevertheless receive pension after quitting parliament! Further its membership has by and large abandoned the political parties on which they were elected and thereby betrayed both voters and the spirit of pluralism. Parliament is currently engaged in a fraudulent act, namely the unconstitutional abuse of its legislative power for the direct personal benefit of 222 MPs. Among the intended beneficiaries of this fraudulent and unconstitutional abuse of office are the President and his cabinet, and the Leader of the Official Opposition. It is clear that there is a conspiracy between MPs and the Executive against the people of Kenya whose taxes are being illegally voted for a very private purpose. MPs are in a situation of conflict of interest and are unable to exercise objectivity on the matter of their personal financial interests. Despite public outrage at three previous attempts to tax Kenyans for selfish reasons, the 9th Parliament is hell bent to vote as a bloc against the national interest. The evidence of conspiracy and fraud is obvious. For instance, the budget which was only read last month did not provide for any gratuity for MPS. Rather the amount MPs intend to vote themselves, were disguised as salaries and benefits for an additional 70 MPs. We are concerned that the current crop of MPs are engaged in a blatant attempt to appropriate to themselves millions of shillings each in campaign funds ahead of the general election that is less than 4 months away. Baby sitting grand corruption in government The 9th Parliament wants us to give them an undeserved gratuity of 1.4 billion shillings, even as it has failed to check Government corruption and has done nothing to resolve such corruption cases as: Goldenberg and Anglo Leasing which sucked up over 200 billion combined and their predecessor scandals such as Ken Ren Fertiliser which cost Ksh 4.4 billion with over 265 million passed by this same 9th Parliament in the Budget for the Consolidated Fund Services (Vote No. R 50 External Debt Redemption Vote Head 164) The Media Bill is only the latest of this government’s draconian laws The 9th Parliament has also passed controversial Bills that have in effect taken Kenya back to constitutional and legally sanctioned tyranny. The passage of the amendments to the Statistics Act to stifle research and dissemination of research findings; the NGO Act to control NGOs; amendments to the Communications Act to curb the operations of a nascent and growing media in Kenya and now the passage of a draconian Media Bill to stifle the development of free press in the country all tell of a Parliament that is hell bent to help the executive fight and oppress the people of Kenya! The Government stands warned that we shall not submit to the return of dictatorship willingly. The media bill is dictatorial. It does not have any place in Kenya. We know that Kenyans cherish their freedom of speech and expression no less than any other rights given to us by the Constitution. We also know that they will defend these rights and guard them jealously. In this regard, we state that the Media Bill is unconstitutional and unenforceable. We call on Parliament and the Government of Kenya to first address matters of national importance, interest and value to Kenyans such as the fact that 46% (17 million) Kenyans live in absolute poverty earning less than Kshs. 68 per day according to the Government of Kenya’s own poverty estimates. This means that over 17 million Kenyans live in unacceptable poverty which manifests itself in the form of – No employment or employment as wage slaves Homelessness Landlessness, and Hopelessness We recall that the MPs of this 9th Parliament have already disregarded the views of Kenyans and shamelessly ignored the poverty of Kenyans and enhanced their salaries to about Ksh 1 million per month. This is over 2 times what was paid to MPS during the entire 8th Parliament’s five year term (1997-2002). Plan of action Our coalition of citizens and organisations and corporate entities opposed to the excesses, indiscretions and abdications of duty by the 9th Parliament therefore announce the following plan of action; We shall on Wednesday August 8th 2007 March on Parliament to present a petition to the Parliament of Kenya, as we are entitled to under the Constitution of Kenya and the Standing Orders of Parliament. We trust we shall be able to present this petition and that at least one Member of Parliament is ready and willing to receive our petition. We shall be joined in our procession by concerned citizens. The petition will demand that Members of Parliament drop the intention of stealing from the citizens of Kenya who they claim to represent. We call upon all Kenyans of good will to turn up at Parliament buildings tomorrow Wednesday August 8th 2007 to speak directly to your MPs against this evil plan. For Kenyans out of Nairobi, we urge each one of you to hang a grey ribbon or cloth on your doors as a sign of calling on your MP to act in the interest of Kenyans and abandon greed. We plan to take certain actions to move President Kibaki and Finance Minister Kimunya into action to drop the Miscellaneous Bill providing for this deplorable gratuity. We have planned to mobilize the country to ask President Kibaki not to sign the Media Bill passed by Parliament last week because it is unconstitutional. We are united with the media fraternity to see to it that the Bill is not assented to law by the president. That any legal provision for gratuity should be applied to the 10th Parliament. At this stage Kenyans attention is also drawn to the miserable situation of many decent and honest Kenyans who have served in the past 8 Parliaments since 1963. That some exist on pensions amounting to Ksh 3,000 per month is a national disgrace. We are sure that Kenyans would prefer that Parliament focus on addressing the plight of these forgotten heroes before taking care of an already pampered and ungrateful lot. We have operationalized various agencies and networks to take appropriate action to seek justice for all those who were illegally detained in police cells. This plan shall also see that focus is turned on the police force which has refused to reform and respect the rights and freedoms of Kenyans. We call on all Kenyans of goodwill to support the civil society and former parliamentarians as we peacefully protest this national scandal. We request our Religious Leaders to act for the poor by using their moral authority to condemn Parliament’s greed and to speak directly to Parliament and the President to end the abuse of our constitutional freedom. We also make a final appeal to each individual MP to vote with his or her own conscience. Is it 6 million shillings now at all costs? The poor are watching you and pleading with you not to take for yourselves what should be theirs. In any case has the 9th Parliament not taken enough for itself already? We will watch and tally the vote. The Parliament of Kenya, each and every single member therein, should take notice that Kenyans ultimately reserve their democratic rights which are not limited to the vote. KENYANS HAVE RIGHTS – KENYANS MUST ENFORCE THEM ISSUED AT NAIROBI THIS 7TH DAY OF AUGUST 2007 BY THE UNDERSIGNED PERSONS