| dc.description.abstract | Parliament has an important role to play in modem governments. The key functions of parliament are legislation, oversight and representation. The study looks at the representational role of parliament in Kenya. It explores the extent to which members of parliament have played the representational role and whether in playing this role, they have lived up to the expectations of the represented. A lack of synchrony in understanding of the role of the legislator between the represented and the representatives denies parliament its quintessential power to provide the check and balance on other arms of government.
The study was motivated by the high turnover of MPs in Kenya's parliament demonstrated by the fact that, since 1997, 84% of constituencies have had more than one MP in the life of 3 parliaments! The high turnover led to asking why this was the case. Could it be that people's expectations of their MPs are too high? Or is it that MPs do not understand their roles? What is the perception of voters of the role of the legislator and what do members of parliament understand as their representation mandate? What factors shape electors' choice of an MP? And to what extent do the perceptions of the roles contribute to the re-electability of a legislator?
Although a sizeable turnover of MPs in every election cycle is expected, the high turnover of MPs in Kenya demonstrates a disjunction on the understanding of the citizenry of the role of an MP and the way the MP understands and executes his role as a parliamentarian. The overall objective of the study was to explore the representational role of the members of parliament with a view to informing the variance in representational expectations between the electorate and the representative and how this influences re-election of MPs in Kenya.
The study hypothesized a disconnect between what the MPs perceives to be his/her role as a representative and that of the electorate, arguing that the more the disconnect between electors perception and those of the legislator on the role of the MPs, the more the likelihood of none reelection. Using the cases of Alego and Bondo constituencies, the study investigated the factors that shape electors' choice of representatives and explored the perceptions of both MPs and electors on representation and the influence of these perceptions on re-election.
Employing the theory of representative government espoused in modern political thought by scholars such as John Stuart Mill, Montesquieu and John Locke, it was established that representation in Kenya grew out claims to the ancient liberties by British colonial citizens ... no taxation without representation. However, challenges in parliamentary representation still remain in Kenya with regard to the system of representation and other dynamics such as gender.
In exploring the extent to which members of parliament have played their representational role and whether in playing this role, they have lived up to the expectations of the represented, it was established that the demands from the electorate on the MP are numerous. Some of these include meeting personal elector needs such as payment of school fees, employment, paying medical bills and taking care of funeral expenses. The others are communal in nature such as provision of clean water and construction of roads largely falling under the domain of constituency service.
Seemingly, voters are for a Member of Parliament who is a provider in the same sense as the head of a household. The Kenyan electorate seems to vote for implementers rather than representatives. From the perspective of MPs there is no official job description. Overall, there seems to be convergence in understanding of the roles of the representative between the represented and the MP even though the latter still lay more emphasis on the traditional roles of law making and oversight probably recognising that it is not possible to meet the demands of every constituent.
The traditional functions of an MP i.e oversight, legislation and representation were found to exist in tension with constituency service. It is to a large extent a zero sum game where on the one hand, time spent on constituency service means less time available to spend on legislating and oversight. On the other hand, time spent on legislating and oversight to ensure accountability means less time spent on representation and constituency service and hence lower prospects for re-election.
In investigating factors that determine the re-election of a Member of Parliament, the roles/functions of the MP were found to be different from the factors that electors consider while choosing a representative. While the functions can and should be performed by any Member of Parliament, voters look for intrinsic characteristics when making the choice of the candidate to elect. Some of these were found to be affiliation- to a popular political party and support of the party leader, development consciousness of the aspirant or past performance as an MP, kinship ties/family relationship, attractiveness of campaign pledges, desire for change, wealth of the aspirant, education qualifications and age.
However, as much as the above are important for first time election to parliament, a different set of parameters determine re-election. Among these were, ability to meet the personal needs of the constituents, political party affiliation, performance in parliament and political linkage to the centre. Certainly, the task of representation has become more complex as the demands on the MP have increased by the day. Representatives who understand these factors have higher chances of re-election than those who do not. | en_US |
