It is generally agreed without question that democracy is the best form of government, and Western nations do all they can to impose it on developing countries. However, democracy requires a large building full of well-paid politicians, most of whom have a conflict of interest between service of the public good and personal pursuit of power. All too often the self interest prevails over the public interest.
In a recent Daily Nation article, Kamau Mutunga pointed out that American legislators earn 11 times as much as the average American citizen, whereas Kenyan members of parliament earn 113 times as much as a typical worker. Given the high proportion of Kenyans who live in absolute poverty, the amount of public funds spent on Kenyan politicians seems a gross extravagance. The parliament is currently planning to purchase 532 new seats for the politicians at a cost of more than $2,000 each.
After the general elections due next year, Kenya will be moving to a more decentralized form of government, with local authorities in each of 47 counties, as specified in the new constitution. Some 15% of national revenue is supposed to be controlled by the new local government authorities. It will be interesting to observe how well this substantial change is implemented.