By OTIENO OTIENO
Posted Saturday, April 2 2011 at 17:42
Posted Saturday, April 2 2011 at 17:42
Kenyan MPs need no tutoring on how to make the most of their time out on overseas trips.
They have the benefit of local practice, having sampled whatever it is on offer at the places of sun, sand and sin at the Coast and in the Happy Valley during regular retreats.
Past reports portray some of them as particularly being at their wits’ end away in foreign capitals.
It is a tribute to their innovativeness that, although such trips are often flagged as official business meant to induct the travelling party into Commonwealth parliamentary procedures, they still end up with a lot of time on their hands.
Indeed it was none other than Johnstone Muthama, one of the two government chief whips, who once likened the numerous travels by his colleagues to “shopping ventures”.
But The Hague and its environs where about 40 Kenyan MPs are set to visit this week present a different kind of challenge even for the most adventurous shopper.
Their Dutch hosts, as they will discover, have long settled the debate about who to entertain, what to buy, what to smoke, who to marry and what is sinful in their laws.
This must make the Dutch hospitality the most generous in the world. The Hague, the seat of government, is said to be relatively laid-back though.
A Kenyan responding to Facebook enquiries by my senior colleague Macharia Gaitho on Friday about the places to avoid described it as “all work and no play”.
This may persuade the honourable gang of 40 to give the short trip to Amsterdam by train a serious thought.
Granted, these MPs may find themselves fairly idle after the brief appearance at the International Criminal Court to display their sycophancy credentials to sections of the Ocampo Six.
Gaitho’s enquiries turned up a comprehensive safari guide of Amsterdam complete with business names, services, special offers, street names, directions and glossary of terms.
Apparently, they don’t serve coffee, as we know it, at their coffee shops or cafés. Also, the shapely object one sees on the other side of the glass while window shopping is not a smiling mannequin.
And further inside, the red light over the curtains is to a tourist what a spear on the door is to a traditional Maasai man.
If there was a time Kenyans ever needed their MPs to be on their best behaviour, it is now.
Any report of excessive shopping overseas in the international press would seriously harm Brand Kenya.
jkotieno@ke.natiomedia.com
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