Lawmakers allocated Sh41bn in budget
Parliament during a past session. Both Houses have been allocated Sh41 billion in the proposed budget.
The National Treasury has allocated Parliament Sh41 billion to finance MPs' activities in the financial year starting July 1. This is an increase of Sh2 billion from the Sh39 billion that had been allocated in the 2023/24 budget estimates Treasury tabled in Parliament in April.
Parliament will spend Sh38.34 billion on recurrent expenditure and Sh2.07 billion for development. The Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC) proposed to spend Sh20.41 billion on salaries for MPs and staff. Goods and services will take up Sh16.79 billion.
PSC said in a brief that it is currently implementing five projects at an estimated cost of Sh14.94 billion—a total accumulated cost of Sh6.57 billion and an outstanding value of Sh8.37 billion as of March 2022.
The Sh41 billion allocation includes funds meant for the completion of the Sh8 billion multi-storey office block that has been under construction since 2013. The National Assembly’s Budget and Appropriations Committee (BAC), however, wants PSC to stop any other constructions until the office block is completed.
Bunge Towers
“The Parliamentary Service Commission should prioritise completion and furnishing of the multi-storey office block for occupation and keep in abeyance, the purchase and development of the Centre for Parliamentary Studies (CPST) land and construction of the complex,” said BAC chairperson Ndindi Nyoro.
The office complex, dubbed Bunge Towers, consists of 331 offices and 26 committee rooms, among other amenities.
National Assembly Speaker and PSC chairman Moses Wetang’ula last November directed the clerk to prepare the schedule of allocation of the 280 offices apportioned to the National Assembly. The Senate, which has 67 members, has been allocated 51 offices.
“Regrettably, around 63 members of the National Assembly will not be accommodated in the new office block,” Mr Wetang’ula told MPs. Priority has been given to the leadership of the House, including the deputy whips, chairpersons and vice chairs of the committees, members of the speaker’s panel and those serving more than one term.
PSC has been undertaking massive developments to accommodate the expanded 418-member bicameral Parliament. It currently spends millions of shillings to hire offices for MPs and Senators who did not secure space at Parliament Buildings.
Each MP without an office within Parliament is given Sh50,000 monthly to rent offices within the Nairobi central business district. Others are being accommodated at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre.
