EDITORIAL: Rein in greedy MPs

For the umpteenth time, MPs are on another annoying mission of seeking to award themselves hefty pay packages. This time, they are going a notch higher or sinking deeper -- whichever way one looks at it -- that their aides, including drivers, secretaries, county and constituency office workers be paid a one-off send-off package of Sh2.7 billion.

That Kenyans are going to the polls on August 8 and that the terms of the aides would come to an end on that date has always been known.

This is happening despite previous provisions that sitting MPs can only choose what the next parliamentarians will take home, not their own compensation.

Trying to hold the country hostage in pursuit of such personal interest is akin to abuse of powers and privileges to make laws.

Legislation is too important a mandate to be used for personal gains, especially in circumstances that are expressly illegal as this case of remuneration is.

Two, this flagrant abuse of power smacks of greed, which the current MPs and the next House should desist from because it is likely to be one of the factors fuelling the endless push for better terms of service by other government workers.

Currently, doctors and lecturers are on strike, and it is not known when they will resume duty. Yet the legislators have only paid lip service to these challenges.

What the legislators are treating Kenyans to is therefore akin to parliamentary dictatorship, partly with the knowledge that theirs ranks among the juiciest perks across the world.

We take this opportunity to warn the legislators that tying their lawmaking to salaries, perks and other personal benefits is to miss the whole import of representing the people and being the people’s watchdogs.

It is shameful when the masses are starving while their representatives are living large, assuming they choose when to open and close the taps of opulence.