I only get Sh640 after loan deductions on my Sh1 million salary – Kiambu Senator Kimani Watangi cries out

I only get Sh640 bob after loan deductions on my Sh1 million salary – Senator cries out

Tony Mukere

July 9, 2019 1:34 PM

"It is a thankless job"

I only get Sh640 after loan deductions on my Sh1 million salary – Kiambu Senator Kimani Watangi cries out

Kiambu Senator Kimani Wamatangi on Tuesday claimed that he has a take home salary of Sh640 despite having a gross salary of over Sh1 million.

Wamatangi was contributing on the controversial move by MPs to increase their monthly salaries from the current Sh1.1 million to between Sh2.1 million and Sh2.9 million.

The Kiambu Senator spoke in support of the MPs, saying that his current payslip has a net salary of Sh640 after he took a loan mortgage at the beginning of this parliamentary term.

“These loans that people describe as lucrative perks, we pay them back and they are deducted like any other commercial loan. In the last parliament, I did not take a mortgage but this time, I decided to take one and try it out.

“I took that mortgage but now if you look at my pay slip, it reads Sh640 after (deductions). I have it and I can even bring you the papers. If I want a businessman, my children would sleep hungry even if I had bought that house, they would have a home but no food,” Wamatangi said.

He added even most of his private income from his businesses goes towards his constituents, claiming that public service is a “thankless job”.

“Even money that I have earned personally, and a lot of it from my private businesses, I spend it on social welfare in my county and elsewhere. You ask yourself, what is this obsession to bedevil MPs,” the legislator said.

Mortgage for Kenyan MPs

Members of Parliament, both in Senate and in the National Assembly, are entitled to a house mortgage of Sh20 million which is supposed to repaid during their five-year term.

Senators earn about Sh1.1 million, out of which Sh300,000 is deducted by KRA to cater for Pay as You Earn (PAYE) tax.

A spot check by Pulse Live Kenya at one of the local banking institutions showed that a Sh20 million mortgage repaid over a period of five years would require monthly repayments of about Sh500,000 – suggesting the Kiambu Senators may have additional deductions apart from the mortgage.

Tony Mukere