Now MPs should step forward and stand in the gap for Kenya

Parliament resumes today for the last session before the August 8, General Election.

As expected, Parliament’s in-tray is overflowing, which calls for seriousness during this fifth and final session to ensure most of the pending bills and other pressing national issues are resolved quickly.

In the last few months, the country has been under the grips of grave challenges: it has witnessed an unprecedented wave of industrial action with doctors and university lecturers staying out of work; companies are laying off workers (despite reports of a growing economy), and widespread drought is ravaging most parts of the country.

After efforts by the Head of State to convince striking doctors to resume work, MPs, (the people's representatives) should deliberate and offer a solution. Many lives have been lost needlessly while more are at risk.

Regretfully, we haven't heard about concrete measures to do away with the perennial food scarcity. All we hear are the usual band-aid solutions; an offer for relief food and nothing else. Besides that, the worsening problem of joblessness even as companies relocate and declare redundancies merits the attention of Parliament.

The growing ranks of jobless youths is a ticking time bomb that must be defused. The energy that the Presidency and the Opposition has exhibited to get more people enlisted as voters is dumbfounding. It is as if registering as a voter suddenly became an emergency.

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No doubt, the importance of voting (a civic duty) cannot be underestimated. Yet to the ruling elite, everything is about them. In fact, what is billed as a voter sensitisation and activation campaign is nothing more than them rallying their support base; often peddling lies that leadership is in danger of being grabbed or that those who have it will deploy all means, even crooked, to retain it. The proliferation of virulent ethnic sentiment and even violence is frightening.

Predictably, President Uhuru Kenyatta started in his Central backyard. Raila Odinga started in Nairobi then retreated to his ancestral base in Nyanza. The constant updates of where their next political rally is to say the least, insensitive considering the magnitude of the drought ravaging the country. It is insensitive to that youth seeking employment; it is insensitive to that man or woman who just lost his job because the company they worked for has to downsize to stay afloat; it is insensitive to that family suffering the pangs of hunger; it is insentive to that kin that lost a patient because they couldn't afford private medicare.

The conclusion one draws from this is that these leaders have conflicted priorities. That they don't really care much about the average Kenyan; that it is all about them.

One of the sobering lessons the shock win of eccentric billionaire businessman Donald J. Trump in last year's US election offers is that ultimately, the citizens get weary of status quo. The Trump movement toppled long-held views about power relations and the traditional ruling class depicted as greedy and out of touch. Most of the rhetoric preached by Mr Trump resonated well with most of the citizenry who felt let down by a greedy and selfish political class.

Like Americans, no doubt, most Kenyans feel let down by the political class. Hopefully, the 11th Parliament's last act will be to stand in the gap or that the voters will be brave enough to deliver a rude awakening to the politicians in August.