MPs don’t have the interest of public at heart

An MP earns, every month for at least a five-year term, a Sh621,250 salary and car maintenance allowance of Sh356,525. This is beside a Sh11.6 million send-off package, tax-free car grant Sh7 million and mortgage facility Sh40 million.

Their medical scheme gives them an in-patient limit of Sh10 million, out-patient Sh300,000, maternity Sh150,000 and dental Sh75,000.

Recently, there was a document circulating in the social media showing MPs’ mileage claims which were of ‘abnormal’ rates. Is that the reason Parliament’s mileage claims are unlimited?

MPs also have a lifetime pension of Sh100,000-125,000 per month and a house allowance of Sh250,000 per month.

The way we have institutionalised misuse of funds in this country is mind-boggling. An MP pockets Sh4,272,000 yearly, or Sh21,360,000 in five years, in car allowance alone. How many other Kenyan graduates earn Sh10 million in five years?

Sh100,000 monthly pension

The MPs recently voted for a Sh100,000 monthly pension for themselves after just two terms and Sh120 million for Speakers on top of other retirement perks.

As this happens, civil servants and teachers are to get Sh7.5 per cent pay cut from January. Management-employed trained teachers have been working faithfully in schools yet Parliament has not as much as considered their plight.

The bill comes at a time when the country is in distress. We have the Covid-19 pandemic that has spawned economic uncertainty. Many people have lost their jobs and businesses; they don’t have food and have been thrown out of their rented houses by landlords. Yet Parliament cannot enact a bill to cushion these people.

Parliament should have its pension scheme, to which MPs and the government contribute. The President must reject the MPs’ pension bill .

Ms Onjoro is a PhD student Mount Kenya University. [email protected].