BONYO'S BONE: Efficiency - Look who's talking

Their anger, they said, stemmed from what they called systemic failures of the airline and its persistent operational nightmares.

In their wisdom, the honorable members suggested that what Kenya Airways needs yet again is a special Parliamentary committee to investigate why the airline continues to post losses, offer poor service, and still gobble up taxpayers’ money.

But the anger didn’t stop there. Members who attempted to explain the complex realities of the airline business were quickly shouted down.

Now, honorable members, allow me to take you down memory lane. This is not the first time nor the second that Parliament has suddenly “discovered” Kenya Airways and its ugly past or bleak future.

Back in 2015, then Kisumu Senator Prof. Anyang’ Nyong’o chaired a Senate select committee that conducted a deep dive into the airline’s financial crisis. It produced a detailed report, complete with recommendations on how to rescue and stabilize the carrier.

Since then, Kenya Airways management has been grilled, audited, and interrogated by nearly every oversight arm of government, including by yourselves at various committee sessions in the last 10 years. At times, its management has even been praised for staying afloat in one of the toughest aviation markets on earth.

So, dear honorable members, we do not need another committee. We do not need another report. What we need is action on the findings already gathering dust in Parliamentary shelves.

Calling for another “special committee” is not oversight, it’s political theatre at the taxpayers’ expense.

If you truly want to protect public funds, look no further than the Auditor General’s reports, the same reports you routinely ignore. They are brimming with cases of theft, waste, and abuse of office, year after year, county after county, and constituency after constituency.

In there, if you don’t gloss over like you are accustomed to, you will find a treasure trove of evidence. It doesn’t need a new committee, it needs political will.

Kenya Airways, meanwhile, is already under multiple layers of regulation both locally and internationally. What more do you intend to find that hasn’t been found, or fix that hasn’t been fixed on paper?

If Parliament genuinely wants to help Kenya Airways, here’s a practical idea: legislate a rule that requires all government officials, including yourselves, to fly Kenya Airways when travelling abroad on taxpayer money. That would be a patriotic start and a real boost to the airline’s bottom line.

But forming yet another committee? That’s not oversight, that’s a gravy train boarding pass, and the public has paid enough fares already.

That, honorable members, is my bone tonight.