Coronavirus mars senators’ Germany trip
Berlin, Germany where the senators were to attend the annual Afro-European conference on trade. PHOTO | AFP
What you need to know:
Senators were on their way to Berlin when the organisers announced cancellation of the meeting just before they landed.
The lawmakers were caught up in confusion as the reality of the cancellation sank in.
- Senate Speaker Kenneth Lusaka announced the lawmakers could be back in the country late Wednesday after they succeeded in securing return tickets.
Four senators and several parliamentary staff have spent three days in Berlin, Germany, for official business that never was.
The members of the Trade committee had been invited for the annual Afro-European conference on trade that was to start last Monday but was cancelled at the last minute due to coronavirus threat.
They include Kirinyaga Senator Charles Kibiru, who chairs the committee, his deputy Loitiptip Anuar, Christopher Langat (Bomet) and Mwangi Githiomi (Nyandarua).
The Nation could not immediately confirm the identifies of the parliamentary staff on the trip that has cost taxpayers millions of shillings.
The senators were on their way to Berlin when the organisers announced cancellation of the meeting just before they landed.
The lawmakers were caught up in the confusion as the reality of the cancellation sank in.
Senate Speaker Kenneth Lusaka announced the lawmakers could be back in the country by late Wednesday after they succeeded in securing return tickets.
“Yes, they have already secured their return flights,” Mr Lusaka told the Nation on Wednesday morning after reports emerged that the lawmakers were stuck in Germany after a meeting they were to attend was cancelled just before their plane touched down.
“They will be leaving Berlin at 2.30pm Kenyan time via Amsterdam and we expect them back home before the end of the day,” Mr Lusaka said.
The meeting was to start last Monday and run through to Friday with the lawmakers forming the Kenyan delegation.
“They were not stuck there. The cancellation of the conference dawned on them soon after they landed in Berlin,” a senior official in Parliament’s protocol office told the Nation.
Each senator is entitled to Sh91,000 daily subsistence any time they are on a visit in Germany according to a circular issued by the Parliamentary Service Commission at the beginning of the year.
The rates for the staff largely depend on the job scale of individual staff.
Since the meeting was to last for seven days, it then follows that every senator would have earned Sh637,000 for the duration of the meeting.
Similarly, it costs anything between Sh150,000 and Sh200,000 for a return first class ticket to Europe.
In the communication delivered to the House, Mr Muturi told the MPs that his office had received communication from the office of the UN Secretary-General indicating that the meeting had been scaled down from the initial two weeks to one day, owing to concerns related to the corona virus pandemic.
“I regret to inform the House that the scheduled travel by representatives of the National Assembly is hereby cancelled with immediate effect.
MPs will now be represented at the meeting by Kenya’s Permanent Missions based at the UN Headquarters. General debate and all planned side events have also been cancelled and countries advised against sending any delegations to the 64th CSW taking place in New York.
