MPs to taste costly city food in 30-day closure of Parliament canteen

Lawmakers will be forced to dig deeper into their pockets to enjoy meals in expensive city hotels after Parliament announced a one-month closure of its restaurant that offers subsidised meals.

National Assembly Clerk Michael Sialai said catering services, which were suspended on Thursday to allow canteen staff to proceed on Christmas holidays, would resume on January 20. The closure of the MPs Lounge and Staff Canteen means that the lawmakers who frequent the restaurant for morning and lunchtime meals as well as evening drinks will have to seek the services in expensive hotels in the city for the next 30 days.

Top hotels in Nairobi central business district charge at least five times more for a five-course meal than the MPs’ restaurant.

The PSC runs the catering service that offers MPs a five-course lunch at Sh600. A similar meal at most five-star hotels in Nairobi cost between Sh2,700 and Sh3,500, inclusive of tax.

At the restaurant, a tea pot and accompaniments such as sausage, arrow roots, doughnuts and sweet potatoes go for about Sh160.

The restaurant is a cashless facility and MPs’ bills are deducted from their pay at the end of the month.

The restaurant offers the 349 members of the National Assembly and 67 senators’ meals through a buffet menu on a self-service basis.

Both Houses of Parliament took the long Christmas holiday on December 6.

The long Christmas recess gives the officers and staff of Parliament an opportunity to take their annual leave and also begin preparations for the next session.

The House is scheduled to resume normal sittings on February 10, 2020 but committee activities will resume as from mid-January.