The Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) has abolished car grants and sitting allowances for Members of Parliament, Senators, and Members of County assemblies (MCAs). During a press conference at the Sarova Stanley in Nairobi on Thursday, July 28, the SRC chairperson Lyn Mengich said, Neither MPs nor MCAs is the intended audience. The reason why they are affected is that they are the only government employees that receive the sitting allowance.
By abolishing the sitting allowance the government is expected to save a total of at least Sh382.2 million. The President and Deputy President’s monthly salaries remain the same. They continue receiving monthly salaries of Sh1.44 million and Sh1.2 million, respectively.
The National Assembly has 349 MPs while Senate has 67 members, every MP receives a total of sh5000 sitting allowance. Commissioner Nelly Ashubwe said the incoming MPs being elected in this year’s election are the ones to be introduced to this new contract. The Senate has three sitting weekly thus, the total amount payable for sitting allowance adds up to sh1,005,000. On the other side, the national assembly holds four sittings a week, therefore, the total amount payable for sitting allowance adds up to roughly sh6,980,000.
This monthly remuneration will operate from the financial years 2022–2023 to 2024–2025. The announcement takes effect from August 9, 2022. The MPs’ basic monthly payment has been reduced from Sh532,500 to Sh426,000. Despite the government abolishing the sitting allowance, MPs are not much affected since they have been added a house allowance of sh150,000.
An MP’s total salary is made up of the basic salary of Sh426,000, their housing allowance of Sh150,000, and the salary market adjustment of Sh134,000. The total monthly gross pay for MPs settles at 710,000.
The nation spent Sh4.5 billion on the MCAs grant. In February 2021, the commission eliminated the Sh2 million grant for each of the 2,237 MCAs that it had approved. This grant was widely perceived as an inducement for the ward representatives to adopt the Constitutional Bill through the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI). An MCA will get Ksh144,375, a car loan of Ksh2 million, and a mortgage of Ksh3 million.
SRC Chairperson Lyn Mengich stated that numerous public and stakeholder consultations were undertaken while introducing the new compensation and benefits. She also cautioned state officers against giving themselves benefits that aren’t listed in the gazette notice.
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