By Christine Kamau
The Salaries and Remuneration Commission has threatened to sue MPs over the house allowances awarded to them following approval by the parliamentary service commission go-ahead.
The SRC has however stated the commission lacks authority to allow any benefits to parliament, and therefore SRC intends to recover every shilling paid out to MPs.
Outrage broke out from the public after it was revealed that MPs and senators received a 10 month backdated house allowance of 2.25m each and 250,000 Kshs expected monthly thereafter. Following a ruling by Justice Chacha Mwita, the speaker of national assembly Justin Muturi justified the action in his twitter handle saying MPs were state officers too.
Already the MPs and senators enjoy mortgage benefits: of up to 20 million shillings with an interest of 3%, which amounts to double payment following house allowances.
According to the Gazette notice, dated 7th July 2017, the remuneration package for the MPs and senators is as follows:
Basic salary:
Speaker of the senate and national assembly earn: – 1,155,000shs
While their deputies earn: – 924,000shs
The leaders of the majority and minority parties in the Senate and national assembly:-765,188shs
The members of parliament and senators earn:-621,250shs
The parliament has a total of 34 committees, while the Senate has 20 of which:-
Chairpersons allowances are:-
Kshs. 8,000 per sitting subject to a maximum of 16 or 128,000shs per month implying in a month the taxpayer coughs out over 7 million shillings in allowances
While members’ allowances:-
Kshs 5000 per sitting to a maximum 16 or 80,000shs while 4.32 million shillings in allowances.
Other allowances:
Medical allowance, in which if admitted in the hospital each is allowed 10 million shillings
Group life insurance: which is 3 times the sum basic salary and allowances.
Car allowance: of up to 7 million shillings with 3% interest payable at the end of term
Members of national and senators enjoy airtime benefits of 15,000shs
Members also enjoy transport allowance based on 5 zones specified by the SRC, the furthest being a distance of over 200 km which the legislators earn: 147,550shs per month.
Currently, the countries wage bill stands at 733 billion shillings which accounts for 52% of the country’s budget.