Kenyan politicians are said to be even more voracious and opportunistic than Italian politicians. Or rather, it is said by the populists who tend to always lump everything together.
However, it is hard to find a time in history when the entire cabinet of ministers at home decided to cut a month's salary to help their fellow citizens in need. Think, for example, of what happened on the island of Ischia a few days ago, or in less recent times the flooding in the Marche or previous earthquakes.
Kenyan ministers in President William Ruto's new government, on the other hand, have come together and decided to donate a month's salary to the collection the government is making for the Kenyans most at risk from the food emergency due to the extraordinary drought in the country.
According to the Salaries and Remuneration Commission, a Cabinet Secretary is entitled to a gross salary of kes. 924,000 (about 8.5 thousand euros).
The state has been intervening for the past month with shipments of food and water to the most battered counties, where Unicef estimates there are more than 4 million people on the edge of human survival, including 1.5 million children. President Ruto has also asked wealthy individuals to contribute through the Mpesa service to increase the government's budget for this major emergency that is unprecedented in the country's history.