MPs to cost taxpayers Sh2m each per month

The cost of keeping a Member of Parliament will rise to an average of Sh2 million per month beginning Wednesday (July 1), highlighting the growing burden to the taxpayer of an expanded House of legislators with powers to determine their perks.

Budget documents show that the 349 MPs (National Assembly) will, in the fiscal year starting July 1 (Wednesday), get paid an average of Sh1.99 million per month in salaries and reimbursements for costs incurred up from an average of Sh1.5 million this year.

Each of the 67 senators is expected to take home similar amounts, making Kenya’s one of the most expensive parliaments in the world.

The 416 legislators will earn the money in basic pay and personal allowances paid as part of the salary that adds up to about Sh1.387 million (combined average for MPs and senators).

Each MP then earns an average of Sh509,214 per month in domestic travel and other transportation costs, taking the total to nearly Sh2 million.
Travel costs are paid to the legislators as mileage claims for trips made to their constituencies.

Budget documents for the past two years show that the cost of maintaining legislators rose by nearly Sh400,000 per MP per month.

In the fiscal year ended June 2014, each of the MPs earned an average Sh1.59 million per month compared to the Sh1.98 million they will be paid in the next financial year — a Sh390,000 or a 24.5 per cent rise.

Nairobi-based public finance analyst Robert Shaw described the cost of Kenya’s legislature as too high, adding that the amount should not be disproportionate to the economy and the budget.

“We need to strike a balance. At the moment, inflation is in control, the cost of living is in control and there has been no massive increase in the cost of living to justify the pay increases,” he said.

“MPs’ salaries are at a good place but the allowances are excessive.”

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The Sh1.98 million that MPs and senators will be paid per month excludes the cost of the legislators’ other expenses, including printing and advertising, hospitality supplies and services, insurance, staff pay and constituency office employees, pension and retirement benefits.

Though the Kenyan Constitution has made it difficult for MPs to set their monthly salaries, the legislators have continued to rob the taxpayers using a wide range of allowances earned, riding on the back of a deal that Deputy President William Ruto brokered in 2013.

The deal, for instance, removed the Salaries and Remuneration Commission’s (SRC) cap on the number of times parliamentary committees can sit, opening the door for MPs to sit more and earn allowances.

The SRC had restricted committee meetings to a maximum of four per week, but the MPs can now hold as many sessions as they deem necessary.

Consumer Federation of Kenya chief executive Stephen Mutoro said that the SRC should either limit the number of committee sittings or reduce the amount paid for each sitting.

The list of items in the legislators’ budget for the coming financial year includes an allocation of Sh290 million for personal allowances to be paid as reimbursements.

For foreign travel, the Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC), which pays MPs, has set aside Sh211 million. This means that on average, each legislator could spend Sh507,000 travelling abroad in the coming year.

This amount settles the legislators travel costs, accommodation and allowances. More recently, the MPs have been lobbying the SRC for a review of their night-out allowances during foreign trips.

The salaries team slashed the MPs’ travel allowances in December 2014 in line with global benchmarks and to help the State curb rising recurrent expenditure.

Besides the enhanced perks, the cost of running the legislature has risen steeply following the expansion of Parliament in line with the 2010 Constitution.

READ: MPs enjoy double digit pay increase after salary deal

The supreme law created a 67-member Senate while the ranks of National Assembly representatives rose from 222 to 349.

The change from a single-chamber National Assembly to a bicameral Parliament has seen the recurrent budget of the legislative arm of the government more than triple in the past four years.

In the fiscal year ending June 2012, Parliament spent Sh7 billion in recurrent expenses mostly to pay the legislators. This will rise to Sh25 billion in the coming financial year or more than treble in three years.

Domestic travel exemplifies the huge and rising burden associated with the expanded Parliament. In the current financial year, the two houses have spent more than half of the entire government budget on transport, according to the Controller of Budget.

“Domestic travel expenditure by the Parliamentary Service Commission accounted for 51.5 per cent of the aggregate domestic travel expenditure by the MDAs (ministries, departments and agencies,” said Agnes Odhiambo, the Controller of Budget in the 2014/15 third quarter report.

The ranks of parliamentary staff such as researchers, Hansard reporters and support workers also increased in tandem with the expanded House.

Mr Mutoro said that the additional legislators have not added any value to Parliament despite the huge cost to the taxpayers.

“It’s not sustainable to keep the high number of MPs. A question must be asked — what has the additional number brought to the table?” Mr Mutoro said, adding that there is no correlation between the per capita production of each MP and the amount he or she is paid.

Other costs associated with the legislators are salaries for support staff such as drivers and the workers in county offices (for senators) and constituency offices (MPs).

The cost of maintaining support staff is also expected to rise steeply in the next financial year following the steep increase in the allocation of funds earmarked for workers attached to MPs.

The amount of money earmarked for that item has increased by nearly Sh1 billion in the coming financial year and opening new avenues for the lawmakers to hire more staff.

Budget estimates show that the money allocated for temporary workers in constituency offices will in the coming financial year rise to Sh2.26 billion from the current Sh1.3 billion. 

The money allocated for senators’ support staff increased to Sh513.6 million from Sh490 million, representing a 4.6 per cent rise. A staffing scheme mooted in 2005 allows the taxpayer to carry the burden of paying staff attached to MPs and Senators.

Security officers attached to MPs also earn a minimum monthly stipend of Sh19,000 besides their salaries.

The PSC has increased the allocation for running Parliament’s constituency offices from Sh975 million to Sh2.1 billion, with senators the biggest beneficiaries.

Each of the 416 legislators is also entitled to a Sh5 million car grant and a Sh20 million mortgage repayable before the expiry of his or her five-year term.

Kenyan MPs are some of the best paid legislators in Africa. A 2013 study by the UK-based Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) found that the MPs’ basic pay, excluding allowances, was 76 times Kenya’s GDP per capita of Sh84,624.