The Salaries and Remuneration Commission has bowed to demands from Members of Parliament who protested the removal of certain allowances and benefits.
SRC bows to MPs' demands after 7-hour meeting
According to a leaked recording of the night meeting, some MPs threatened that they would slash SRC’s budget.
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The commission on Wednesday evening held a 7-hour discussion with MPs, in which the legislators put their foot down, describing the scrapping of allowances as unacceptable.
According to a leaked recording of the meeting, some MPs proposed that they would slash SRC’s budget if the commission failed to reinstate the abolished allowances.
“We intended to have a closed meeting and the purpose of a closed meeting is not to come out and disclose everything we discussed,” National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetangula shared, adding that the MPs were satisfied with engagements.
He said that SRC Chair Lyn Mengich would write to the Parliamentary Service Commission to address some of the issues raised by the MPs.
Speaking to journalists after the session on Wednesday night, Mengich confirmed that issues of remuneration, allowances and benefits were discussed but did not disclose specific details of the meeting.
The MPs protest the scrapping of sitting allowances for plenary sessions, car grants and mileage allowances.
SRC’s Proposed changes in MPs'pay and benefits
In its new proposals, the commission recommended a Sh40,000 increase in the MPs’ pay to Sh750,000 per month.
However, the SRC also proposed cuts in the legislators' allowances and benefits to stem the ballooning wage bill.
In the new proposals, MPs’ car grants were slashed from Sh5 million each to Sh3.5 million.
This means that newly elected officials would have to chip in their own money or take out loans to buy high-end cars such as Toyota Prados and Landcruisers which retail for over Sh5 million on the grey imports market.
The SRC removed sitting allowances for the house plenary arguing that MPs were already receiving a salary to perform their roles.
Sitting allowance for committee sittings was also capped at 8 in a month. This means that chairpersons of committees who are entitled to Sh10,000 would get a maximum of Sh80,000 monthly.
Normal members of the committees who take home Sh5,000 per sitting would only take home a maximum of Sh40,000.
The SRC also proposed to cut the mileage allowance from the current Sh187 per kilometre to Sh112.
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