Raila urges MPs to halt pay rise demands

Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga on Sunday challenged Members of Parliament to scale down on their demand for salary increment due to the current state of economy. Read (Majority against MPs’ pay rise, survey says)

Mr Odinga said the economy might stall if huge and frequent recurrent expenditures occasioned by high salaries by state officers are effected.

“We have an economy to run and it must move on. We must be very careful when we are loading it with recurrent expenditure as opposed to the development expenditure because we will not be able to create employment if go that way” Mr Odinga said.

Mr Odinga spoke after attending a church service at the Lutheran Church along University Way in Nairobi where he also asked the legislators to pay more attention to the consequences of their salary demands.

He also dismissed threats by some MPs to push for the disbandment of the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) saying they were just playing politics.

“We must actually be careful when we are talking about salary increments. The MPs need to talk to the SRC but not to blackmail the commission by threatening to send them packing. Politics of blackmail cannot take us anywhere,” the former PM said.

MPs have asked SRC to increase their salaries from the Sh551,000 to the Sh851,000 earned by their counterparts in the 10th parliament.

Mr Odinga also called on President Kenyatta’s government to increase funds allocated for development saying that would help create more jobs.

“I support the increment of development funds which will help us create employment for our country,” he added.

Mr Odinga also expressed concern on the insecurity in parts of the country saying it was worrying to see Kenyans being killed.

“All of sudden, there are emergence of strange happenings in some parts of the country like Busia, Mandera, Bungoma and Busia. People are being killed and lynched in the presence of police officers. We want to see this stopped immediately” he said.

Mr Odinga also denied being given a job by President Kenyatta.