Parliamentary committee chairpersons earn a sitting allowance of Sh8,000 per session while committee members take home Sh5,000.
Each of the 349 members of the National Assembly and 67 Senators have been earning Sh5,000 for every plenary sitting.
The deal, for instance, removed the SRC’s four-meetings-a-week cap, allowing the MPs to sit more and earn allowances.
The Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) has failed to plug a major loophole that MPs may exploit to rake in thousands of shillings in allowances every month, minimising the intended impact of the recent pay cuts.
Though the commission has in a newly published gazette notice capped the number of committee sittings at 16 per week, parliamentary officials said the MPs are likely to find a way around it by establishing ad-hoc and sub-committees to increase their monthly allowances and recover what they will lose in the pay cuts.
Parliamentary committee chairpersons earn a sitting allowance of Sh8,000 per session while committee members take home Sh5,000.
The SRC’s gazettement of the massive pay cuts came after Parliament passed the 2017/18 budget allocating committee services vote, which pays the sitting allowances, the largest chunk of the money.
Senior parliamentary staff cited the fact that National Assembly and Senate Standing Orders are silent on what constitutes “Plenary Sessions” — a loophole the legislators may use to keep the allowances gravy train going.
MPs hold four sittings in the chamber (plenary) every week, three in the afternoon starting 2.30 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and on Wednesday morning.
This means that the SRC gazette notice scrapping plenary allowances only affects the four weekly sittings.
Under the new pay structure expected to take effect at the start of the 12th Parliament in September, sitting allowances for plenary sessions, mileage allowances, and special parliamentary and responsibility allowances have been scrapped.
SRC Chairperson Sarah Serem. FILE PHOTO | NMG
The SRC effected similar cuts in the 47 county assemblies in a move that is expected to significantly reduce the MCAs’ pay.
Each of the 349 members of the National Assembly and 67 Senators have been earning Sh5,000 for every plenary sitting.
Members of the 416-member bi-cameral Parliament also earn Sh5,000 for attending each sitting of a committee while chairpersons earn Sh8,000, raising their monthly take-home to more than Sh1 million.
The MPs have been minting millions of shillings for making technical appearances in multiple committee meetings where they are members, meaning any serious effort to limit their pay will have to tackle committee sitting allowances.
Though the Constitution has made it difficult for MPs to determine their own pay, the legislators have continued to raid the taxpayers using a wide range of allowances, arising from a deal Deputy President William Ruto brokered in 2013.
The deal, for instance, removed the SRC’s four-meetings-a-week cap, allowing the MPs to sit more and earn allowances.
Parliamentary staff said the MPs had taken to dividing single sessions into two or three different sittings for which they are paid separately to increase their monthly pay.
Although the SRC’s decision to cap salaries and allowances seeks to address the ballooning public sector wage bill, the 12th Parliament is expected to exploit the committee sittings to compensate for the loss in salary cuts.
With the recent changes to the House rules where the number of MPs sitting in parliamentary committees has been reduced by 12, the lawmakers are expected to invent more ingenious ways to increase the number of sittings to raise their perks.
The membership of all House committees, except Budget and Appropriations, has been cut from 29 to 17 in changes to the Standing Orders that were approved before the 11th Parliament went into end-of-term recess.
Five new committees were created, including one that will be mandated to scrutinise accounts of political parties, the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF) and other specialised funds.
