MPs to cost taxpayers Sh2m each per month

 

Parliament in session: Budget documents show that legislators will be paid Sh390,000 more in the next fiscal year. PHOTO | FILE 

By KIARIE NJOROGE, gkiarie@ke.nationmedia.com

In Summary

• MPs will, in the fiscal year starting July 1, get paid an average of Sh1.99 million per month in salaries and reimbursements for costs incurred up from an average of Sh1.5 million this year.
• Each MP then earns an average of Sh509,214 per month in domestic travel and other transportation costs, taking the total to nearly Sh2 million.

The cost of keeping a Member of Parliament will rise to an average of Sh2 million per month beginning Wednesday (July 1), highlighting the growing burden to the taxpayer of an expanded House of legislators with powers to determine their perks.

Budget documents show that the 349 MPs (National Assembly) will, in the fiscal year starting July 1 (Wednesday), get paid an average of Sh1.99 million per month in salaries and reimbursements for costs incurred up from an average of Sh1.5 million this year.

Each of the 67 senators is expected to take home similar amounts, making Kenya’s one of the most expensive parliaments in the world.

The 416 legislators will earn the money in basic pay and personal allowances paid as part of the salary that adds up to about Sh1.387 million (combined average for MPs and senators).

Each MP then earns an average of Sh509,214 per month in domestic travel and other transportation costs, taking the total to nearly Sh2 million.
Travel costs are paid to the legislators as mileage claims for trips made to their constituencies.

Budget documents for the past two years show that the cost of maintaining legislators rose by nearly Sh400,000 per MP per month.

In the fiscal year ended June 2014, each of the MPs earned an average Sh1.59 million per month compared to the Sh1.98 million they will be paid in the next financial year — a Sh390,000 or a 24.5 per cent rise.

Nairobi-based public finance analyst Robert Shaw described the cost of Kenya’s legislature as too high, adding that the amount should not be disproportionate to the economy and the budget.

“We need to strike a balance. At the moment, inflation is in control, the cost of living is in control and there has been no massive increase in the cost of living to justify the pay increases,” he said.

“MPs’ salaries are at a good place but the allowances are excessive.”

EDITORIAL: MPs greed for personal gain must be curtailed

The Sh1.98 million that MPs and senators will be paid per month excludes the cost of the legislators’ other expenses, including printing and advertising, hospitality supplies and services, insurance, staff pay and constituency office employees, pension and retirement benefits.

Though the Kenyan Constitution has made it difficult for MPs to set their monthly salaries, the legislators have continued to rob the taxpayers using a wide range of allowances earned, riding on the back of a deal that Deputy President William Ruto brokered in 2013.

The deal, for instance, removed the Salaries and Remuneration Commission’s (SRC) cap on the number of times parliamentary committees can sit, opening the door for MPs to sit more and earn allowances.

The SRC had restricted committee meetings to a maximum of four per week, but the MPs can now hold as many sessions as they deem necessary.