MPs, Senators to get Sh3 billion for breakfast, lunch

By Standard Reporter

Nairobi, Kenya: Despite the depressing fact that members of the 11th Parliament and the new Senate would take a salary cut, they will soon have a reason to smile and even laugh at the Salary Review Commission.

After the election of the two House speakers — Mr Ekwe Ethuro for the Senate and Mr Justin B Muturi for National Assembly on Tuesday — members agreed to top up their entitlement.

Though they are yet to be approved, since the two Houses have not set up departmental committees, members agreed that the new chain of luxuries which are aimed at cushioning them against salary shrinkage include free breakfast, lunches and dinners at their relevant cafeterias.

Already, the two Speakers are in discussions with the clerks — Mr Jeremiah Nyegenye for Senate and Mr Justin Bundi for National Assembly — and it has largely been agreed that diminishing earnings will make the members both ineffective and disinterested in long sittings since they will have to pursue other means of income, and even more scary, susceptible to corruption.

“We are trying to assure the members that disbanding Ms Sara Serem’s commission on salaries is a nullity in law and we have proposed ways to reduce the burden on their pay slips by catering for their foods and drinks daily,” said one of the clerks in confidence.

“We want every member to be entitled to free three square meals every day, for himself or herself, every day so long as it is within the two Houses,” explained Mr Ethuro.

Ten visitors

“We have also agreed with Muturi and the clerks that we would allow each MP and Senator to treat a maximum of ten visitors to free meals at each sitting,” added Ethuro.

This would mean that each of the 349 MPs and 67 Senators can treat 30 people to free meals, but ten in each breakfast, lunch and dinner session.

Given that lunch goes for an average of Sh1500, it would mean that the MPs alone would cost taxpayers an average of Sh1.2 million a day for lunch and dinner alone. This excludes breakfast, 10 and 4 o’clock tea and snacks.

“We project that once the new Parliamentary Service Commission is in place, it should set aside at least Sh3 billion a year for this arrangement,” said Muturi. He, however, refused to say more. “You know we have just been picked and consultations are still going on.

However, you ought to know that MPs and Senators can’t survive on the taxable Sh520,000 salary a month.

“I thought after spending millions to campaign for Senate, I would earn enough to buy a Sh20 million home in Karen or Runda and also purchase my dream car, BMW X5. But it makes no sense what we are being treated to,” lamented a senator from Rift Valley on condition of confidentiality.

A catering officer in the National Assembly said the MPs had proposed that at each sitting for lunch or dinner, they be entitled to a free bottle of wine or spirit of their choice. “There is no way Treasury can stop us, not even Ms Serem. We are independent just like the Executive,” an MP boasted.

Terms of work

He argued that members of the Judiciary such as magistrates and judges now have better terms of work and have access to three per cent mortgage and car loans. “This is a war we will fight to the end, in fact there is already a proposal that small fridges stocked with soft drinks and water will be set up at strategic places in the two Chambers. We will not allow to be served with bottled water like the last parliaments,’’ he added.

Separately The Standard established that some of the new MPs are also mulling over how to stop the live coverage because they claim it exposes their limitations in debating and also reveals their absence from sittings.