Not with Kenyans' tax money

The civil society on Thursday pleaded with Finance minister Uhuru Kenyatta not to allow tax money to be used to pay the salary increase for members of Parliament.

The Finance minister must prepare the Finance Bill and bring it to Parliament for the vote increasing each MP’s monthly salary to Sh1.2 million to become law. “We are going to present a petition to Mr Kenyatta not to present the Bill and to urge him to act in the interest of suffering Kenyans.

“We know he let us down when he failed to tax MPs, but we urge him not to bow to MPs’ pressure this time,” said Kituo Cha Sheria executive director Priscilla Nyokabi, who was speaking on behalf of other NGOs. Mr Kenyatta has seven days to table the Bill and Ms Nyokabi threatened mass protests if it is presented.

The NGOs described the MPs’ pay rise as “theft with impunity, outright selfishness and the greatest betrayal of the people they represent in Parliament.” The generous salary award, which includes a 100 per cent rise in sitting allowances and adds Sh1 billion a year to the taxpayers’ burden, has been greeted with outrage and condemnation across the country.

The MPs’ vote ignores some of the key recommendations of a salary commission, such as that a wage increase cannot apply to the Parliament passing it but the next one. Central Organisation of Trade Unions acting secretary general George Muchai said it was “retrogressive and likely to bring distress among Kenyans” while the civil servants’ union described it as “outrageous and a mockery of Kenyans”.

Muslims for Human Rights executive director Hussein Khalid termed the legislators’ decision “an abuse of office, corruption and sheer greed”. Teachers, who have been negotiating an increase of their own were similarly outraged. “It is outrageous and utter selfishness for the parliamentarians to award themselves higher salaries at a time when other sectors are in a crisis,” said Rift Valley provincial chairman of primary school heads’ association Philip Mitei.

In total, the public will spend Sh4.3 billion a year on 222 MPs’ salaries and their many allowances. Currently, the MPs’ salaries and allowances other than sitting allowances cost the taxpayer Sh2.2 billion per year. This will rise to Sh3.3 billion under the new plan. The annual bill for sitting allowances alone will be Sh1 billion.

The cost of MPs’ wages is only Sh100 million less than the Sh4.4 billion set aside for the purchase of medicine for all hospitals in Kenya under the current budget. MPs’ sitting allowances alone exceed the Sh900 million the government has set aside to buy ARVs for HIV patients this financial year.

It is equal to the Sh1 billion the government intends to spend on recruitment of 15 nurses and five health technicians in each of the 210 constituencies. Each MP will cost Sh123 million for one parliamentary term, a lot more money than what the government intends to use to build 200 fish ponds across the country this financial year.

Salaries and allowances for all MPs for one term will be Sh27.3 billion, more than the budget for free primary education and the purchase of computers in each of the 210 constituencies this financial year. But the MPs’ salaries and allowances are set to balloon to Sh5.2 billion every year if the proposed constitution sails through, creating a 350-member Parliament, only Sh200 million short of the money the Treasury has set aside for rural electrification which will see 3,310 public institutions in rural areas connected to the national grid this financial year.

With an enlarged 350-member Parliament under the proposed constitutional dispensation, Kenyans will spend another Sh126 million every month to pay MPs’ sitting allowances alone, translating into Sh1.5 billion annually. The extra burden on the shoulders of the Kenyan taxpayer follows Parliament’s move to hastily debate and approve a report that recommends a new pay package for the legislators.

The new perks were recommended by a tribunal appointed by the Parliamentary Service Commission and chaired by retired judge Akilano Akiwumi. The PSC, however, revised the tribunal’s recommendations upwards before tabling the report in Parliament for debate and adoption.

Draft Bills

Mr Kenyatta is expected to table before the House three Bills to legalise the recommendations to enable them take effect starting July 1, this year. According to the recommendations, an ordinary MP will take home Sh1.2 million in basic salary and allowances, up from the current Sh851,000.