The recent debacle of Somali pirates hijacking a Ukranian ship carrying 30 new T-72 tanks, as well as loads of ammunition and rocket launchers for the Kenyan Army got me to thinking.
It got me to thinking that Kenya is one of the poorest countries in the world. A country constantly looking for handouts from the international community, a country whose bloated bureaucracy consumes $800 million dollars annually just to pay for the bloated government. Kenyan MP's are amongst the best paid in the world. The BBC reported recently, that in a country where the average income is less than $400...
Cabinet posts attract a monthly salary of nearly $18,000 (£9,000). Assistant ministers earn a bit less - just over $15,000.
The new prime minister and two new deputy prime ministers will be paid more. So salaries alone will cost the Kenyan taxpayer $1.5m a month.
Ministers and their assistants also get allowances - that adds another $210,000 a month to the bill.
To add insult to injury, the Kenyan exchequer only claws back a little in tax: only around $3,000 of the ministers' income is treated as taxable income.
It is impossible to put an accurate figure on the total burden, but these extra bonuses amount to a cash value of at least $13m a year, or to put it another way, enough to build around 50 new schools in Kenya.
Which brings us back to the military spending. In a country where the average person is barely surviving on less than $400 a year, the military spent $283 million dollars last year. Which brings us to the current debacle off the lawless coast of Somalia. A country that relies on food aid and development agencies to provide medical care to its citizens, a country where the annual educational budget is $30 million.
