Ababu Namwamba has blasted MPs for taking catering trips to the Netherlands, India and Ethiopia saying “it is not [their business] to cook for us”.
The Budalang’i MP criticised the MPs following National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi’s advise that cooks and canteen employees should take the trips instead.
The Speaker questioned MPs travels abroad to learn the services saying Nairobi’s Utalii College was sufficient.
Via Twitter on Friday, Ababu said: “This whole benchmarking crap just epitomises the bankruptcy of leadership. Why not visit Utalii?”
Muturi sparked comedy at the Assembly on Wednesday when he noted the staffers would learn more on the trips than the Catering and Health Club Committee.
Committee vice chairperson Benjamin Lagat had told the House that some members had travelled to the three countries in a bid to improve services.
The committee, which manages the members’ restaurant and health club, was briefing the House in a session marked by hearty laughter.
Members expressed concern about the quality of food and the services offered at the health club located at the basement of Continental House.
Majority leader Aden Duale asked Muturi, who chairs the Parliamentary Service Commission, to intervene as “the food here is pathetic, the toilets are not clean, and the tea and snacks taste like they are not fresh”.
As Kenyans continue complaining about MPs extravagant trips abroad, Tanzania’s new president John Magufuli ordered restrictions on foreign travel by government officials and cuts in tax exemptions.
“If there is an urgent need for foreign travel by a public official, approval must be granted by the president himself or the chief secretary (head of civil service),” his office said on November 9.
His belt-tightening measures are aimed at raising money to finance the government’s plan of providing primary and secondary education to all Tanzanian children free of charge from January next year, the office said.
Source- the-star.co.ke
