Public opposed to MPs’ pay increase

Salaries and Remuneration Commission chairperson Sarah Serem. Photo/FILE  NATION MEDIA GROUP

By PETER LEFTIE pmutibo@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted  Saturday, April 13  2013

Constitutional commissions and independent offices on Saturday warned of an economic meltdown while a rights group threatened to invoke the recall clause against MPs as public protests against their push for hefty salaries gained momentum.

The Commission for the Implementation of the Constitution (CIC), the Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA) and the Controller of Budget warned that the public wage bill was too high and could not sustain any salary increments.

“The wage bill is too high, the economy will not be able to sustain the high salaries MPs are yearning for. We are spending 70 per cent of our budget on recurrent expenditure leaving only 30 per cent for development which is too little to spur economic growth,” warned the Director of Budget, Agnes Odhiambo.

CIC chairman Charles Nyachae asked the MPs to respect the mandate of the Salaries and Remuneration Commission even as they push for higher salaries.

“The SRC derives its mandate to set and review salaries of all state officers, MPs included, from the Constitution. MPs are at liberty to air their grievances about salaries to the commission but let them also respect the mandate of that commission. We must learn to respect the mandates of our institutions,” he said.

And CRA chairman Micah Cheserem advised MPs to tread carefully, warning that a review of their salaries upwards will set the tone for similar demands by other public officers.

“The danger here is that if the commission succumbs to pressure from MPs, tomorrow it will be governors demanding a pay increase and when that Pandora’s box is opened, I don’t know where we will stop,” he warned.

A consumer rights group, the Consumer Federation of Kenya (Cofek), threatened to mobilise Kenyans to recall any MP who supports the petition for higher pay. It said the public mood was totally opposed to any salary increments for legislators.

Article 104 of the Constitution empowers the electorate to recall any MP before the end of the term if he or she fails to meet their expectations.

“Cofek will work with like-minded Kenyans to mobilise the electorate to invoke the recall clause against MPs who are intimidating and threatening Serem and her team,” Cofek chairman Stephen Mutoro warned.

“The mood of the country is that no single cent should be added to the MPs’ salaries or allowances so they should stop arm-twisting the commission,” he said.

The leaders were reacting to a new push by MPs to force the Salaries and Remuneration Commission to reinstate the hefty perks amounting to a minimum of Sh851,000 per month – most of it tax-free –  enjoyed by their predecessors in the Tenth Parliament.

The MPs have signed a resolution asking the Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC) to restore the pay of the 10th Parliament and annul the reduced salaries gazetted by the SRC, which pegs their salaries at Sh532,500 per month.

They have threatened to dissolve the SRC and frustrate operations of government and its institutions if their request is ignored, terming the current salary structure an insult to the institution of Parliament.

They have piled pressure on the PSC, which caters for their welfare, to push for their demand. They want the commission to get them a salary that “befits the status of an MP”. They also want to be exempted from the SRC pay structure.

The MPs have signed a resolution that PSC will use to negotiate better terms with the commission. Among their options is that PSC negotiates to reinstate their perks to Sh851,000 which was paid to MPs in the last Parliament.

The Executive, led by Deputy President William Ruto, has warned MPs to be cautious on their agitation for a salary increment.

Addressing the MPs on Thursday, Mr Ruto advised that the lobbying for pay was not good for the country given the current state of the economy, adding that other workers were likely to follow suit.

Most of the MPs said the current salary was too little for an MP and threatened to do everything possible to overturn the decision by the Serem-led salaries team which sets the salaries of public servants, including crippling operations of government.

Sources at the meeting said the plan was to have the definition of a State officer amended to exclude them.

Mr Nyachae, Mr Mutoro and Mrs Odhiambo dismissed the threats by MPs to dissolve the SRC if their demands are not met, saying only a national referendum could okay the dissolution of a constitutional commission.

“The commission can only be dissolved or its mandate changed through a national referendum. There is no other way of removing a constitutional commission,” Mr Nyachae stated.

Mr Mutoro, on his part, threatened to mobilise Kenyans into rejecting any attempt by MPs to dissolve the SRC even in a referendum.

“We will also be at the forefront in mobilising Kenyans to vote No should a referendum to dissolve the Serem Commission be called because that is the only way the commission can be dissolved,” he stated.

“MPs do not have powers to dissolve the Commission. I would advise that the commission engages the MPs to explain to them the reality on the ground. They have done this with other arms of government, including the Executive, and they have given very good reasons and statistics to show where they are coming from, so they should do the same with MPs,” said Mrs Odhiambo.

She instead suggested that the government cleans up the payroll to ensure there are no ghost workers and restructure government functions to align them with service delivery. “Expenditure should lead to enhanced service delivery to the citizens.

Rationalisation of the pay structure should be coupled with rationalisation of the functions so as to contain the wage bill,” she advised.

The Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut), however, defended the MPs, saying they were justified in fighting for their rights.

“The labour movement does not advocate a reduction of salaries. It is unfair for SRC to reduce MPs’ salaries because there was a reason for increasing the salaries to where they were in the first instance,” said Knut chairman Wilson Sossion.

“The best SRC can do is to freeze further increment of the salaries, not to reduce them. After the MPs, teachers will come next,” he said.

Before SRC’s intervention, a Kenyan MP used to earn a salary and allowances totalling Sh851,000, the highest in the Commonwealth. The amount included a basic taxable salary of Sh200,000 and a host of tax free allowances including a Constituency Allowance of Sh50,000, Sh70,000 house allowance, Sh30,000 Extraneous Duty Allowance, Sh60,000 Entertainment Allowance, Sh75,000 Transport/Commuter Allowance and Sh366,000 Vehicle Fixed Allowance.

Besides the Sh5,000 each MP receives for attending a session of Parliament, they also receive handsome allowances for sitting in various parliamentary commissions. The chairman of the Parliamentary Service Commission, for instance, pockets Sh20,000 every time he chairs its sessions while the vice-chairman pockets Sh15,000 every time he attends its sittings.

The chairperson of a PSC sub-committee is entitled to Sh12,500 allowance every time he chairs the sub-committee meeting while every MP who sits on the PSC received Sh10,000 for attending its sessions. Chairpersons of parliamentary committees receive Sh8,000 for every session chaired while members of the committee receive Sh5,000 for every session attended.

They have also raised their foreign travel allowance from Sh32,000 to Sh100,000 per day
.