Even before the 12th Parliament officially opens, a section of lawmakers have expressed their distaste with the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) for slashing their pay and scrapping allowances.
A Member of the Parliamentary Service Commission and Homa Bay County Women Representative Gladys Wanga yesterday chided the Sarah Serem led commission sating its mission was to make MPs beggars.
“There is a mission to demean Members of Parliament and reduce them to beggars,” she lamented.
Kiambu County Women Representative Gathoni Wamuchomba said “I want to be paid well. I worked, I fought it out to be a Member of Parliament, I campaigned, I used my resources; I want to be paid well. I want to be honoured for who I am, for what I have been able to achieve.”
This statement drew backlash from her supporters on social media.
But Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria said he is ready to take a further pay slash of even 15 per cent.
“I commend you for revoking all my sitting allowances, otherwise, I would have been tempted to also claim squatting or sleeping allowances,” he wrote in a facebook post on Thursday.
He said he supports SRC’s move to slash pay for all civil servants starting with the President because it will create funds for free secondary education.
“I trust that with my reduced salary and no sitting allowances, we can now work towards subsidizing fees in boarding schools,” observed the Gatundu South MP.
Nyali MP-elect and former investigative Journalist Mohammed Ali said he is not supporting the move by his other colleagues to increase their pay.
Ali said that he is not going to enrich himself at the expense of serving the people.
Dagoretti South MP-elect and former comedian John Kiaries also said he does not support the pay increase.
Senator Kipchumba Murkomen (Elgeyo Marakwet) said he is alright with the salary cut but made three demands to government.
“Pay me the sh600, 000 even slash it to sh500, 000 I don’t care but make the office of the Senator to have a vehicle to go round, create enough staff for us to be able to have contact persons in the county; provide the resources that are going to run the office.”
Former Mbita MP and now Suba North MP Millie Odhiambo said she supports the push for higher pay.
By Pharis Kinyua. He’s an online journalist and an author for Jamhuri News