“Our engagement with the SRC is to remind them that as they go about their constitutional mandate, they should be alive to the fact that issues that are available to Members like perks that they enjoyed in the last parliaments should not be unnecessarily or unreasonably interfered with.”- NA Speaker Moses Wetangula
By Lavin Atieno
Members of parliament may end up being paid more than the court of appeal judges if the parliamentary leadership manages to persuade the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) to reinstate their sitting allowance.
Before the plenary sitting allowance was scrapped MPs used to earn Ksh. 5,000 for each sitting and would pocket about Ksh 80,000 a month assuming that they attended all the plenary sittings. . The National Assembly has four sittings in a week when in session.
After it was abolished by the SRC chairperson Lyn Mengich, their monthly pay amounted to Ksh 710,000. The reason for the termination of the said allowance was to ensure that MPs do not earn more than court of appeal judges. Should the MPs have their way in the push for reinstatement of the plenary sitting allowance, they will make more than Kh1.2 million per month which is more than the Court of Appeal Judges. National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetangula now says the abolished sitting allowance will be restored. Addressing the newly sworn-in MPs during their induction at a city hotel, Mr Wetangula assured them that they had no reason to worry as he has already initiated talks with SRC.
“Our engagement with the SRC is to remind them that as they go about their constitutional mandate, they should be alive to the fact that issues that are available to Members like perks that they enjoyed in the last parliaments should not be unnecessarily or unreasonably interfered with.”
“We live incrementally and not by reduction,” Mr Wetangula told the MPs just hours after a meeting with SRC. “We must have an equitable approach where MPs are clearly facilitated to do their work. Comparisons between Parliament and other departments of government have been made and distinctions are drawn. I am sure that there will be no scandal,” the Speaker said.
