Kenyan taxpayers forced to dig deeper into their pockets as parliament expenses balloon to USD425.5m for 2018/19

Kenyan taxpayers are set to be burden even further by legislature’s expenditure in 2019.

Members of Parliament have set aside Sh5.9 billion for their foreign and domestic travel in the next financial year — nearly doubling the Sh3.2 billion reserved for the same purpose this year.

The amount contained in the estimates of recurrent and development expenditure of the Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC) for the year to June 2019 were tabled in Parliament on Thursday by the Leader of Majority in the National Assembly Aden Duale

“The gross total resource envelope (recurrent and development) for financial year 2018/19... is Sh42.55 billion,” Justin Muturi, the PSC chairman and Speaker of the National Assembly, said in a report forwarding the House budget.

The 67 senators will consume Sh1.5 billion in foreign and domestic travel, up from Sh981.4 million in the current financial year, while the 349 members of the National Assembly are to consume another Sh4.4 billion, up from Sh3.5 billion, on the same.

In total it will cost Kenyan taxpayers a massive Sh42.55 billion to finance MPs and parliamentary staff operations in the financial year 2018/19, making the legislature the most expensive public institution in Kenya in terms of per capita spending.

The PSC wants the Treasury to allocate Sh39.34 billion for Parliament’s recurrent expenditure and an additional Sh3.2 billion for development in the year 2018/19.