Over 100 broke MPs risk losing their luxury cars

MPs are under immense pressure to clear low-cost mortgage and car loans ahead of polls. FILE PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP.

Nearly 100 MPs are facing possible repossession of their luxury cars to recover outstanding loans at the end of their tenure on August 7, the Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC) has warned.

The MPs, fresh from spending millions of shillings in the recent party primaries and expecting to spend more in the upcoming campaigns, are under immense pressure to clear low-cost mortgage and car loans advanced during their term in office.

SH20 MILLION

The lawmakers are entitled to a Sh20 million mortgage and a Sh7 million car loan that they are, however, required to repay on or before the end of parliamentary terms. 

The 418 members of the bicameral Parliament are also entitled to a Sh5 million car grant, which they do not repay.

Through its Car Loan Scheme Fund, the PSC has asked MPs not to rely on their monthly payslip deductions to repay the money due but to instead “make additional payments from other sources.”

“This will ensure early repayment and release of original logbooks to facilitate their discharge and transfer to the owners,” the fund says in a report to Auditor-General Edward Ouko.

DEADLINE

The fund says it had outstanding loans amounting to Sh213.1 million for both MPs and parliamentary staff.

The MPs are now staring at property seizures in the event of default on the loans borrowed at the beginning of their tenure in March 2013.

In the case of the 11th Parliament, the MPs must clear their loan balances on or before August 7, 2017.

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