As President William Ruto officially launches the new Bunge Towers in Nairobi today, nominated senator Gloria Orwoba says she is reluctant to share the excitement.
She was speaking on TV47’s breakfast show Morning Cafe which airs every weekday from 6am to 10am.
According to her, the only upside with the Bunge Towers is finally acquiring a permanent office, as she has had none for the past 20 months.
However, having a background in architecture and years in the corporate world, Senator Orwoba expressed concerns about the ‘dignity’ of their slated offices within Bunge Towers.
“When you have lifts that take forever work to work, I don’t know whether that is modern. I see both Speakers speaking very highly about it, but when you have a project that initially cost KSh5.8 billion yet the final cost came to KSh9.6 billion, I would not be excited. In fact, I would have to sit there with a dossier of a report to tell Kenyans why the cost of a building just skyrocketed,” she explained.
Further, Orwoba alleged that legislators would primarily be sharing office space, which is not convenient for them owing to their different mode of operations and political environment.
“There are so many strange things about that building. In an office of a member of parliament, there is no way you can lack a waiting room, because in a day you would see over 50 people from your constituency. At Bunge Towers there is no waiting room.
“The set up of that place is such that two Members of Parliament are sharing an office. If my personal assistant and secretary has to sit with your personal assistant and secretary we are sharing an office. The problem is about the nature of work you are doing and the nature of politics. Our staff will interact and some things will be shared,” Orwoba commented.
The first-time lawmaker attributed this to last minute changes in the architectural design to accommodate the over 300 legislators, yet initially it was to meant for only 290 MPs.
Senator Orwoba maintained she is reluctant to attend the official launch of Bunge Towers, let alone move into her new office.
