NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec 14 – NARC Kenya leaders have lashed out at the government for being insensitive to the plight of its citizens.
Party leader Martha Karua and Secretary General Danson Mungatana said that the government had shown insensitivity by being silent on the ever rising cost of living.
Karua further said that the height of insensitivity was manifest recently when the government set out to demolish houses.
“If a party does not respect human rights then the government it forms will also not respect human rights; the government that we are having today is no longer the protector of its people but the destroyer of lives,” Karua said refereeing to the recent demolitions of houses in Nairobi and on its outskirts.
Mungatana argued that it was insincere for presidential aspirants currently serving in the government to campaign and promise people change while they have failed during their tenure.
“It is the same people in this government who want to be elected; I cannot be convinced that they can bring about any change,” he said.
Mungatana affirmed that the new constitutional dispensation needed a completely new set of thinkers for full implementation.
“What this country needs is a new beginning; our children want change. A fresh Constitution needs a fresh way of doing things within government. Our current government is made up of people who are completely insensitive,” the Garsen MP added.
“We should not have a country where people accused of corruption merely step aside then are reinstated with no action taken against them… we must create a country in which there will be no corruption and where public money will be use for the good of the country,” he added.
The two spoke at the party’s headquarters at a conference for the National Governing Council to explain to party’s delegates the party’s constitution, the electoral law and the Political Parties Act.
Already the Central Organization of Trade Unions COTU has warned that it will lead workers and the Matatu Welfare Association to strike starting next Monday unless the government reduces fuel prices.
COTU Secretary General Francis Atwoli said that together with the Matatu Welfare Association they had written to the president over the issue and there had been no response.
Fuel prices have been edging upwards from January 2011, with a litre of petrol going up by approximately Sh30 within the period while inflation in the month of November rose to a high of 19.72 percent.
The Matatu Welfare Association wants the prices of petrol reduced from Sh124 to Sh86, diesel from Sh114 to Sh79 and kerosene from Sh94 to Sh66.
In November the government set out to demolish houses built on flight paths for security reasons in Syokimau, Eastleigh, Kyang’ombe, Mitumba, Maasai, Kiambiu and Kitui areas.
The Parliamentary Select Committee investigating the controversial government-sanctioned demolitions tabled its report to Parliament, and recommended that the residents from the above areas be restituted and resettled.
The team, under the leadership of Gachoka MP Mutava Musyimi, noted that the residents were evicted without prior notice, despite acquiring titles that they believed were genuine.
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