INFLATION: GOVERNMENT BITING THE VERY HAND THAT FEEDS IT.

In the early hours of this week`s Tuesday night, Nairobi city and its environs was engulfed in torrential rainfall. Drenched but resilient commuters trekked to their respective homes. Like them, I too was dog-tired of constant fare hikes occasioned by unethical practices such as fuel hoarding by cartels and the resultant exorbitant fuel prices. Along the way, we discussed about many issues if only to mollify the effect of the unrelenting rainfall.
I listened to the torrents of their afflictions. Looking into their pained faces it occurred to me that theirs was the anguish of the entire nation. It was the anguish occasioned by an unfeeling parliament. In fact one of them referred to it as “The Shrine of Pomposity.” Another one called it “A Hall of Pretentiousness.” I could not agree more with them. It occurred to me that ours is a country truly populated by an abundance of legislators but it is hampered by a dangerous dearth of leaders.

At hand is a direful situation that would drive nuts any responsible leader, but our legislators are more than usual calm. Frankly, they do not give a damn as the country`s economy totters on the brink of collapse courtesy of the “Leviathan Inflation.” What we have are legislators who will pretend to empathize rather than risk offending us by telling us to peacefully manage our own pangs of hunger.

Our legislators have succeeded in subjecting us to sustained and undisciplined extravaganza of incoherence as hyper-inflationary conditions breed normlessness. We are witnessing a generation of the business class that is busy manipulating prices to rake in huge profits in order to stay ahead of the current “inflation.” Our legislators have remained conspicuously silent when a coterie blames our country`s economic vicissitudes on turmoil in the global oil market when the truth is that it is the government`s incoherent policies in the energy sector, inability to address persistent drought conditions, political tensions and absence of sound fiscal policies that have largely seen our country`s economy nearly obliterated. It is this colossal inability to effectively and efficiently manage the country`s affairs that will tend to keep inflation present in the economy even when the original reasons for it occurring will long have gone.

Secondly, much as honorable Ephraim Maina may have very noble intentions in reintroducing the Price Control Bill I am afraid that it will suffer the same fate it suffered last year. Just last year, attempts at putting in place price regulation mechanisms for essential products sparked controversy with FKE stating that any curb of Kenya`s unrestrained free enterprise is anathema. Majority of the Legislators will most definitely give this revised bill a wide berth given that most of them are themselves merchants, consequently, a price stabilization mechanism will stand in the way of their in-built avarice.


Thirdly, legislators have maintained a studious silence even as the government proposes to increase taxation on salaried workers (the very hand that feeds it) as one of the many measures of bringing down inflation. It behooves the intelligence of the salaried workers that legislators and owners of capital, who already own most of the wealth, will almost be getting a free ride. The corporate chieftains and other shareholders will continue getting full benefit of any profit from the paper shuffling of their businesses, while anyone earning more than the median wage gets more and more of their income sequestered by the government.

They are dead silent because the bulk of their money is made up of their untaxed allowances. They live in a glass house and they cannot afford to throw stones. For the citizenry, this is a very serious and unfair discrimination. In fact, it is a recipe for the haves continuing to gain more, while the have-nots bear the brunt of leveraging the economy. Despite the public`s persistent demands that such allowances be taxed, the MPs have remained largely unmoved. We must reiterate for the umpteenth time that income is income and should consequently be taxed the same.

While these conceited and infantile exhibitionists do what they know best in their “Shrine of Pomposity,” almost every other day a new story of institutional and individual graft will be churned out to the trekking Kenyans rendering the likes of Triton and Goldenberg a mere child`s play. The trekking Kenyans are the chosen few on the face of the earth who can peacefully live and breed double fold amid a biting inflation, debilitating corruption and diseases.

I cannot agree more with French Canadian film director Denys Arcand when he opines that “as civilizations approach collapse, people become more concerned about their own gratification than about their social responsibilities.” Indeed, our legislators seem intent on proving this theory correct.