Don't be so easy.

It is not that difficult to ignore a parliamentarian. It really isn't. But it is even easier to ignore a parliamentary committee. These people are a joke; what makes it funnier is how serious they take themselves. Have you seen the Senate Majority Leader comport himself in public? He really believes that he is better than the people he is addressing and that they would be total idiots to ignore the weight of the substance of his pronouncements. The same, sadly, is true of the National Assembly Majority Leader; but he really, mostly thinks we are small children in need of constant adult supervision. We think that he thinks he is  nursery school teacher. He certainly thinks like one.

The paternalism that characterises our engagement with the government, whether it is pompous senior civil servants, or ass-hats in Parliament, would be really something if the wonderful world of the world wide web were restricted to that pair of characters. The casual misogyny that many parliamentarians - and civil servants - engage in would be largely overlooked. The overbearing and patronising tone that these VIPs used would never be the butt of ever more cruel jokes. And we would not have to put up with ridiculousness disguised as Serious Parliamentary Business.

Parliament, broadly, plays three key roles: making laws, representing voters' interests, and overseeing the other arms of the government, but mostly overseeing the Executive arm of government. Actually, when it comes to oversight, the only office that matters now is the presidency; every one else is not important enough - not by a long shot. It is not an understatement to remind readers of this blog that parliament has acquitted itself shamefully in the execution of its functions. It has enacted, time and again, bad laws. It's members have failed to even raise basic questions that affect their constituents or find solutions that would not be laughed out of a nursery school class. In its oversight duties, however, if there is a bottom of the barrel, parliament has found it - and kept scraping.

If you doubt this assessment, allow this blogger to remind you of some of the more notorious episodes. The Senate has impeached the Governor of Embu twice. Not different occupants of the office, but the same man. Twice. And both times the Supreme Court has tut-tutted and asked that august chamber to try again. The National Assembly has threatened to dismiss a Cabinet Secretary because he said mean things about one of its members at a fundraiser in a backwater no one has ever heard off. The National Assembly's miffed members sniffily went about collecting signatures because of the cheek of a mere Cabinet Secretary (who, by the by, has more academic degrees than is sensible) refusing to kow-tow to a parliamentarian, to pay proper obeisance to that worthy personage.

If these two are not persuasive, perhaps the saga of the Judicial Service Commission, the former Chief Registrar of the Judiciary and a former member of the Judicial Service Commission should suffice. When the Judiciary decided to acquire forty Mercedes-Benz limos for judges in 2012, this blogger warned that it was a sign that the graft that characterises public service had found a home in the judiciary. So did many Kenyans who challenged the rationales proferred by the former Chief Registrar and the former member of the Commission. But the judiciary doubled down and decided to buy the Chief Justice a mansion.

The Auditor-General examined the judiciary's books. He found money missing. The former member of the Commission and the former Chief Registrar had a falling out. Allegations were made. Counter-allegations were made in return. The Chief Registrar was fired. She appealed to a parliamentary committee for help and it rode to the rescue. It summoned members of the Commission to appear before it. They refused. It sought to have members of the Commission removed from office. The High Court rudely refused to oblige. The parliamentary committee's chairman made threats. He was ignored. But today, it emerges that neither the former Chief Registrar nor the former member of the Commission was entirely without blood on their shoes. And parliament is today contemplating a new law that "will force public servants to toe the line." I wonder how long before the High Court rudely declares the law (if it is ever assented to in the first place) as stupid as it sounds and shreds it to bits. This could get hairy. Do you see why it is not difficult to ignore parliament or parliamentarians? They make it so damn easy.