Dear MPs, all the best; go on, get our freebies and have fun
What you need to know:
- I don't understand why MPs are agitated. Nothing much was being taken away. In fact, in some aspects, their incomes will go up significantly.
- I don't understand why MPs are agitated. Nothing much was being taken away. In fact, in some aspects, their incomes will go up significantly.
- In the new SRC pay structure, an MP’s Sh710,000 gross monthly salary is in three components – Sh426,000 basic salary, Sh150,000 house allowance, and Sh134,000 in something called “salary market adjustment”.
Incoming Speaker of the National Assembly Moses Wetang’ula does not believe in the new official mantra of “tighten your belts”.
He cheered up MPs during their induction ritual last week when he assured them that not a cent would be deducted from their pay and benefits by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission.
The SRC had on June 28 this year gazetted a review of MPs' salaries and allowances.
I don't understand why MPs are agitated. Nothing much was being taken away. In fact, in some aspects, their incomes will go up significantly.
Only the plenary sitting allowance of Sh5,000 has been scrapped. This makes sense because you shouldn’t be paid twice for the primary job you earn a salary for.
Nothing else was touched. Actually what the SRC did was to rejig the allowances with new classifications.
In the new SRC pay structure, an MP’s Sh710,000 gross monthly salary is in three components – Sh426,000 basic salary, Sh150,000 house allowance, and Sh134,000 in something called “salary market adjustment”.
Why somebody should get a house allowance when he’s entitled to a Sh35 million mortgage facility beats me.
In fact, Wetang’ula gushed that the mortgage benefit is perhaps the best in Kenya at three per cent per annum.
However, salary is just a top-up. Where MPs make serious money is in allowances. Understandably, MPs are furious the SRC abolished the previous Sh5 million free car grant.
Not to worry. It has reappeared in a different form: a Sh7.5 million motor vehicle purchase reimbursement scheme. ]
It’s not a loan. You buy your car, then you get reimbursed. The deal comes with a sweet Sh356,525 monthly car maintenance allowance.
Unnecessary sittings
The SRC has raised the sitting allowance for committee meetings to Sh7,500 for ordinary members per sitting, up from Sh5,000.
But there is a catch. Unlike plenary sittings, which are held only four times a week, committees have no fixed schedule.
To maximise member earnings, committees would hold many unnecessary sittings. Wisely, the SRC capped the total sitting allowances an ordinary member can draw from one committee at Sh120,000 monthly.
(However, MPs can sit on more than one committee). Expect MPs to vigorously push for uncapping so that they go back to minting unlimited committee money as before.
The other cash cow is the mileage benefit. MPs get reimbursed for weekly trips to their constituencies at the rate of Sh116.63 per kilometre.
If for instance, an MP’s constituency is 300kms from Nairobi, he'll be reimbursed Sh69,978 weekly (calculated at 600 km, to and fro).
Monthly it comes to Sh279,912. MPs from distant places like Marsabit and Mandera mint millions from mileage claims.
SRC’s wish to cap the mileage allowances has been fiercely opposed by all MPs.
Posh medical cover
MPs have constituency offices and staff that the Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC) pays for.
They're also provided with a personal assistant, a driver and a policeman for protection. Additionally, there's a posh medical cover for the MP, spouse and up to five offspring under 25.
And there’s insurance, personal accident, gratuity and pension benefits in place as well. A generous allocation for foreign travel and related expenses too.
Wow! I'm told there's even a phone airtime allowance! I'm a little disappointed the honourables have not advocated for a wardrobe allowance, a grooming allowance, an "inconvenience" allowance (to compensate them when constituents personally bother them) and other such sundries.
The cash-in-the-pocket a Kenyan MP will be getting from the taxpayer each month amounts to: Sh710,000 (salary) + Sh356,525 (car maintenance) + Sh120,000 (committee allowances) + mileage (varies but an average of Sh300,000 can be approximated) + Sh15,000 (airtime). Total: about Sh1.5 million.
This is a good life, even by First World standards. A German MP's monthly pay of €10,012 (taxable) is roughly equivalent to Sh1.3 million. His only other parliamentary remuneration is a tax-free allowance of €4,583 (Ksh552,000) per month.
It covers his constituency office expenses and house rent in Berlin. No other parliamentary cash entitlement is permitted. For travel, German MPs get free yearly rail tickets.
The familiar song of Kenyan MPs to justify their cash craving is that constituents treat them as ATMs. It's a choice MPs can choose to reject, as did Martin Shikuku of old. His Butere constituents used to re-elect him again even though he never dished out handouts.
Fat per diems
The lust for cushy emoluments is by no means confined to the Legislature. It cuts across the entire state sector – Executive, county governments, state corporations, independent commissions and the Judiciary.
We see endless unnecessary conferences and trips – local and overseas – taken in order to earn fat per diems.
Meetings such as the MPs' induction workshop or the IEBC post-election appraisal conference that can be held at free-of-charge venues like the Kenya School of Government are instead booked in five-star hotels.
This time the MPs picked a Nairobi hotel, but they much prefer to fly or drive to Mombasa where the distance affords them better allowances and ambience.
Go on, 'wakubwa', continue feasting greedily on the taxpayer buffet, like depraved gluttons with no table manners. One day when Wanjiku wakes up from her prolonged slumber, there'll be hell to pay...
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After flopping in his bid to become Murang'a governor, Farmers Party’s Irungu Nyakera is now into other dubious pursuits.
He's petitioned Parliament to remove the four IEBC commissioners who differed with chairman Wafula Chebukati over the August presidential election results.
What will Nyakera do next? Petition for the banning of a certain TV station? The intention to have the commissioners removed was first signalled by Garissa Township MP Aden Duale.
He's a shrill regime parrot. Nyakera has joined the choir? Drop the sycophancy, man. It’s embarrassing.
[email protected]; @GitauWarigi