Anti-government protesters use a police shield to protect themselves from tear gas canisters on Tom Mboya Street in Nairobi on July 2, 2024.
On September 21, 2022, the chairperson of the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) Lyn Mengich was under siege for six hours by hostile MPs.
Just a month after election to Parliament in the August 9, 2022 General Election, the lawmakers were furious about pay cuts proposed by the SRC.
These included the scrapping of Sh5, 000 plenary sitting allowance (SRC said this would save Sh1 billion annually), restrictions on engine sizes of their fuel guzzlers funded by taxpayers and tighter controls on mileage claims.
SRC had published the changes in the Kenya Gazette before the elections on July 28 that also sought to limit the number of spouses and children that an MP can include in the State-funded medical cover to check abuse by members who had secret families.
Against public displeasure, the newly elected MPs made the clamour for a pay rise their first order of business. And Ms Mengich was the target of their collective rage. The National Assembly has 349 members and the Senate 67, the membership totaling 416.
That day during an induction conference at Safari Park hotel, Ms Mengich faced their wrath, the only lone voice against MPs’ greed.
It didn’t matter that the then Central Bank Governor Patrick Njoroge had in an earlier presentation to the forum painted the grim picture of the country’s financial position and pleaded with the legislators that it should worry them too.
Debt servicing
“For every shilling that we collect in revenue, about 40 per cent goes to debt servicing or in every Sh100 we collect, Sh40 goes to debt servicing,” the CBK boss told them. “So you begin asking yourself what about the salaries in the civil service, what about medicine, what about medicine, what about building the roads? So the point is that you also need to worry about this problem personally and ask yourself…wait for a second, I am not at a point where I am falling, I am collapsing,” Dr Njoroge said. The debt crisis has since worsened.
But this wasn’t enough to persuade the lawmakers to abandon their quest for fatter perks.
With a consolidated salary of Sh710,000, which they pad with other allowances to push the monthly pay beyond Sh1 million, the MPs still demanded more and accused SRC of demeaning them with low pay amid heavy responsibilities.
“I have two wives. When I come here I am given a condition that I must put one wife in the medical insurance. I have been in Parliament before and we used to put two wives on medical insurance. You are putting me, as a man, on a collision course with my wives, to choose whom I love the most. And I am not able to know who will fall sick next,” Budalang’i MP Raphael Wanjala protested at the forum.
“You are giving me conditions for the children I have sired. In Kenya, there is no law that limits us to give birth to only four children,” Mr Wanjala added.
“We have the yam and the knife. We are going to cut your budget by half,” Embakasi East MP Babu Owino told the SRC as he demanded that MPs from Nairobi be too allowed to draw a hefty mileage allowance.
“We sit daily and you are taking away our sitting allowance. It’s only MPs who get a salary reduction every term. You must tell us why you are discriminating against MPs,” pressed Mbita MP Millie Odhiambo.
“We will not sit and watch the SRC take away what we enjoyed in the last Parliament,” warned Westlands MP Tim Wanyonyi.
Public protests
But this week, the awful timing of reports about the implementation of SRC’s new salary scheme for State officers, in the middle of public protests against the runaway cost of living championed by youths (Gen Zs), have MPs finally cornered.
The youthful protestors have been inundating MPs who voted for the controversial Finance Bill, which President Ruto has since withdrawn, with persistent calls and messages on their phones. Some MPs have had their properties attacked and the latest development would only have served to inflame the resentment.
Public outrage has forced the government and SRC to shelve implementation of an August 9, 2023, Gazette Notice through which the SRC set the remuneration and benefits for State Officers under the Third Remuneration and Benefits Review Cycle that covers 2021/2022–2024/2025 financial years.
Had media reports not highlighted that implementation of these new perks was due on July 1 - each of the MPs was to pocket an extra at least Sh14,000 - it’s almost certain they would have quietly pocketed the additional pay.
Other beneficiaries of the new schedule of salaries that have now been suspended include speakers, cabinet secretaries, governors, judges, constitutional commission holders, and members of county assemblies among others.
Parliament’s budget for the new financial year increased to Sh43.62 billion, up from Sh41.06 billion in the 2023/24 financial year, and it was expected the Sh1.07 billion required to pay the additional perks was included.
The previous year’s estimates had factored in Sh17.7 billion for civil servants’ salary review that was effected in July 1, last year.
But for the first time, thanks to the Gen Z revolt, MPs were scrambling to disown the new perks and accusing the SRC of setting them up against the public.
Among those who had a Damascus moment was Babu Owino said that the move is ill-informed since the nation is grappling with a heavy financial crisis and giving an advantage to state officers will heighten outrage.
"MPs and other state officers should not be added even a coin. It's sad to increase the salary while Kenyans have no jobs, Kenyans have no capital to start businesses, Kenyans have no money to pay school fees, No money for medication. Say no to salary increments," Owino wrote on X.
Senate Majority Leader Aaron Cheruiyot told the House SRC has been silent during the protests and challenged the commission to speak out on how to reduce the wage bill from 46 per cent to a mandatory 35 per cent of national revenue.
“If it means taking a pay cut, we as Members of Parliament have been told that we will never do it. We don’t have an option, we must do it," Cheruiyot said.
"The yearly increment that is being discussed, I saw it being reported or misreported that we are now going to earn more. SRC continues to be silent about it. We must make a resolution and say that we reject even that one in light of the financial situation,” Cheruiyot added.
Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna said the timing of the salary increment was not proper.
"I didn’t ask for it. I don’t need it. It’s still money, in a country where many have no income, but for perspective, I pay close to 300k in income tax every month," Mr Sifuna wrote on X.
In 2013, newly elected MPs, angered by SRC’s reduction of basic salary from Sh851, 000 to Sh531, 000, which had been communicated prior to the polls, threatened to disband the then Sarah Serem-led commission.
Removal from office
The members of the National Assembly unanimously backed a petition by Igembe South MP Mithika Linturi for the removal from office of members of SRC.
“There is need to remove the whole commission from office,” said Linturi at the time. He is now Agriculture cabinet secretary.
Gem MP Jakoyo Midiwo declared: “She is purporting to tell you, as a Member of Parliament that you cannot be bought for a car, yet she goes around in GK vehicles. She is rogue.”
“We are not after our salaries. Linturi is raising a fundamental breach of the Constitution,” Majority Leader Aden Duale explained. Duale is now the Defence cabinet secretary.
“The argument is not about the salary but the constitutionality of the purported gazette notice of March 1, just on the eve of the election,” said Wajir West Adan Keynan.
“Unless we stand up and defend this institution, Kenya will become a banana republic,” said Kitutu Chache MP Jimmy Angwenyi.
SRC subsequently bowed to pressure and gave in to some demands including offering a Sh5 million car grant instead of Sh7 million loan payable in five years.
In the end, the MPs walked away with a much better salary package that saw them even earning more than those who had served in the Tenth Parliament. By taking a large cash payment upfront and forcing the salaries commission to abandon ceilings on their allowances, they effectively increased their total take-home pay by more than Sh300,000 a month.
The additional perks raised the benefits paid out to MPs from about Sh900,000 a month, as proposed by the SRC, to about Sh1.2 million monthly. “We have a better deal than what the media has brought out,” a legislator disclosed at the time. “But that is a story for another day.”
