MPs, senators to meet over disputed house allowances

National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi speaks to journalists at Parliament buildings on May 9, 2019 after meeting with the Building Bridges Initiative team. He has said lawmakers will meet over house allowance. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Last month, the 416 members of the two Houses were paid a Sh250,000 house allowance that was backdated to October 5, 2018.
  • Ms Mengich said the SRC is the only State body mandated to review the salaries and allowances of State and public officers.

Members of Parliament and senators are expected to hold a joint Speaker’s Kamukunji on Thursday to take a stand on their contentious allowances.

The meeting comes just days after the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) challenged in court the decision to pay lawmakers house allowance.

National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi invited the MPs and senators to the informal sitting the day Parliament resumed business after a long recess.

“You are invited for the Speaker’s Kamukunji on June 6, 2019, Thursday, in the National Assembly chambers at 11am.

"The meeting is intended to find an opportunity to brief members and staff of the ongoing dispute between the SRC and the Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC). This Kamukunji will also involve senators,” Mr Muturi said, amid applause from the MPs.

But as he made the announcement, he noted that Homa Bay Town MP Peter Kaluma had written to him requesting that a Kamukunji be held.

“Mr Kaluma has raised pertinent issues in the letter to the Speaker and we will find out what the issues he has raised are,” Mr Muturi said.

Last month, the 416 members of the two Houses were paid a Sh250,000 house allowance that was backdated to October 5, 2018, the day High Court Judge Chacha Mwita ruled that deputy governors and other state officers are entitled to a house or a house allowance.

UNCONSTITUTIONAL

MPs are recognised under the Constitution as State officers alongside the President, his deputy, Cabinet secretaries, judges, principal secretaries and members of constitutional commissions and independent offices.

But the Lyn Mengich-led SRC has challenged the matter in court, saying that the allowance is illegal and that MPs should be compelled to return the money.

“We hear that PSC has been taken to court regarding our pay, that is why I wrote to the Speaker requesting that he brief us,” Mr Kaluma said.

Ms Mengich had earlier said the SRC is the only State body mandated to review the salaries and allowances of State and public officers.