Verdict on MPs’ tax

• 90 per cent of Kenyans want leaders’ allowances taxed
• Most say the legislators earn too much
• Many unhappy with law makers’ performance

A vast majority of Kenyans want MPs to pay taxes on their hefty allowances, according to a new opinion poll.

Ninety per cent of those polled said their leaders should be taxed just like any other Kenyan.

The survey also found that majority of Kenyans felt that the salaries and allowances of their MPs are too high while their performance was rated as “poor”.

The opinion poll was a vote of no confidence by the electorate in a parliament which was voted in only 11 months ago and majority of whose members are newcomers.

Budget presentation

But even as the electorate was censuring the performance of lawmakers, MPs still deleted provisions which would have made them pay taxes on their allowances like all other Kenyans .

The proposals to tax the MPs had been made by the then Finance minister Amos Kimunya during the Budget presentations in June.

They later passed a vote of no-confidence against him, saying he was to blame over the sale of the Grand Regency Hotel, privatisation of Telkom Kenya, a dispute over the printing of currencies and the Safaricom Initial Public Offering.

A commission appointed by the President to investigate Mr Kimunya over the hotel saga is said to have cleared him.

And on Tuesday, the leaders proposed the formation of a tribunal to study how MPs allowances should be taxed if at all.

Currently, an MP pays only Sh53,000 per month income tax on the monthly salary of Sh200,000 but their allowances totalling Sh600,000 is not taxed.

The opinion poll conducted by The Steadman Group for the Nation Media Group showed that wananchi were unhappy with MPs over their failure to pay tax on their allowances.

Random sample

A random sample of 2,051 adults in 53 districts were polled for the survey which was conducted between November 20 and November 23.

The opinion poll indicates that 90 per cent of Kenyans believe that Members of Parliament should pay taxes for all the money they earn.

According to the poll, it is only in North Eastern province that the number of those in support of the taxation falls below 85 per cent.

The survey also indicated that the public feels the MPs are paid too much, with only 10 per cent of the respondents describing the pay as “about right”. 

“Provincial variations here are very minor, with the figure for this response nowhere falling below 87 per cent,” the poll findings indicate.

Most people do not know that MPs pay tax on their basic pay.

Less than half of the respondents said they about this. This awareness was highest in Nairobi with 53 per cent of the population saying they were aware and lowest in Coast Province at 30 per cent.

And only eight per cent of Kenyans support partial taxation of the MP’s pay.

Three MPs, Mr Johnstone Muthama (Kangundo), Mr Jeremiah Kioni (Ndaragwa) and Tetu’s Francis Nyammo have written to Parliament asking that their perks be taxed. However, the Speaker has said that such taxation would be illegal.

Instead, he proposed that the leaders donate the money to a charity of their choice.

The Steadman poll also shows that 43 per cent of Kenyans rate the performance of their legislators as poor while 30 per cent say it is fair.

Only 19 per cent of the respondents felt that their MP was doing a good job.

Scored highest

Legislators from the North Eastern Province scored the highest in performance with 32 per cent of the respondents approving their performance as good.

The range of such “good” scores elsewhere was modest, from 22 per cent in Central Province to 15 per cent in Western and Nyanza provinces.