African Press International (API)

THE STIFF RESISTANCE BY Cabinet ministers and top government officials to Finance minister Uhuru Kenyatta’s directive that they give up their expensive gas-guzzlers in favour of cheaper cars with an engine capacity of less than 1800cc has left me truly dumbfounded.

Let’s not forget that many of our senior civil servants and Cabinet ministers grew up in poverty. Many went to school barefoot and some probably didn’t get to own a car until they entered politics.

Unlike Uhuru, who was born into wealth and can — if he wishes — buy 20 top-of-the-range gas-guzzlers in cash, many of our Cabinet ministers come from humble backgrounds, and have taken hefty loans to support their new luxurious lifestyles. What is worse, most of them represent some of the poorest people on this planet.

To now claim that driving a smaller, less luxurious car will cramp their style is the height of hypocrisy and displays gross insensitivity to the plight of ordinary Kenyans. Gender minister Esther Murugi is reported to have said that she will not comply with the directive because a smaller car will not allow her to visit various parts of the country where the roads are impassable.

If her own constituents, who voted her in, can suffer bad roads, why can’t she? Besides, if the money saved from driving a less expensive car can go towards fixing those impassable roads, then everyone will be happy. I must confess that I am one of the lucky people in Kenya who owns a car and learned to drive at an early age. But for me, cars are just tools to get from point A to point B, nothing more.

I remember when I bought my first car — a beaten-up old Toyota that left a cloud of smoke every time I accelerated — a colleague had the audacity to tell me that I should quickly buy a bigger and more luxurious model because my car was an “embarrassment” and looked bad in front of all the 4X4 luxury gas-guzzlers in the parking lot.

Being impressionable and not so wise to the world at that time, I succumbed to the pressure and bought an old BMW just to fit in. Unfortunately, because it was old, and had clocked more than 100,000 miles, the BMW had a tendency to break down quite often, and I was forced to eventually sell it at one-tenth the price at which I had bought it.

THAT EXPERIENCE TAUGHT ME THE following important lessons. One, cars depreciate in value the minute they are out of the showroom — they are not an investment. Two, that you must never take out a car loan unless you have paid your mortgage. Three, gas-guzzlers cost a lot of money to maintain and are bad for the environment.

Meanwhile, agents supplying the most sought-after luxury car in Kenya — the Mercedes Benz — are having a field day. In line with the minister’s directive, they are promoting the E-class model, which has an engine capacity of 1796cc but which comes with all the luxurious features our ministers cannot live without, such as leather interiors and sun roofs.

Daimler-Benz, the manufacturer of the Mercedes Benz, is laughing all the way to the bank because while the engine might be smaller, the price tag is just as high as the larger engine capacity model — between Sh8 and Sh18 million, depending on the features. To put this in perspective, a minimum-wage earner in Kenya would have to work more than 100 years to earn this kind of money.

But let me not be too harsh on politicians. We Kenyans like to see them — and celebrities (many of whom claim to be champions of the poor) riding in the lap of luxury. How can we explain the ecstasy in the faces of Kibera or Budalang’i residents (many of whom live below the poverty line) when their MPs drive in to see them in a Hummer (price tag Sh6 million)?

Why is it that the cars that celebrities drive are photographed as much as the celebrities themselves? What if our ministers, to demonstrate solidarity with Kenyan watchmen, nannies, factory workers, hawkers and the like — rode to Parliament on bicycles or in cheap Toyota Starlets? Would we lose respect for them or applaud them? I suspect the former.