Why MPs are Boycotting Parliament Duties

alfred kiura

November 22, 2018 7:57 AM

MPs decide to avoid their duties in Parliament and protest.

Parliament building

A group of MPs boycotted their duties to protest the Parliamentary Service Commissions (PSC) failure to pay their sitting and travelling allowances.

According to reports, the lawmakers skipped several committee sittings over lack of financial facilitation for the past two months.

Cancelled Trips

Additionally, the legislators are said to have cancelled several foreign trips over “Exchequer issues’’ while others have had their mileage allowances not refunded on time.

The Standard reported that National Assembly Minority Leader John Mbadi is one of the MPs whose foreign trips were cancelled.

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The silent go-slow in both the Senate and the National Assembly came to the fore last week when Endebess MP Robert Pukose took to the floor of the House to protest the cash crunch facing Parliament.

Pukose claimed that the Energy Committee was worst-hit by the predicament as members had opted not to attend committee sittings over lack of allowances.

“When we go for any committee retreat nowadays, we are not facilitated. Members are not given their sitting allowance,” the Endebess MP stated.

National Assembly Clerk Michael Sialai, however, dismissed the reports, stating that there was no cash crunch in Parliament.

CBK's Directive

“We have adequate funds to fund all planned parliamentary activities, including committee operations. We have no pending travel nor sitting allowances, perhaps except those submitted this week which we are processing,” Sialai stated.

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However, he noted that there could be a slight setback following Central Bank of Kenya guidelines that directed Parliament to pay all allowances through bank accounts.

The National Assembly is no longer permitted to hand MPs cash after the new guidelines were presented to them.

alfred kiura