Sh1.7b for MPs’ free sleek cars

By Mwaniki Munuhe

NAIROBI, KENYA: The taxpayer might fork out Sh1.7 billion for MPs to purchase luxury vehicles in a bid to avert the standoff between Parliament and the salaries commission over pay cuts.

It has emerged that the lawmakers have forced the reinstatement of a grant that the Salaries and Remuneration Commission had scrapped and replaced with a Sh7 million car loan.

The Standard on Saturday has established that the commission — with clearance from the Treasury — has offered each of the MPs a Sh5 million grant for the purchase of vehicles. If the deal is implemented, the new legislators will pocket Sh1.7 million more than what was paid out to members of the last Parliament.

And considering the expanded House of 349 members, the taxpayers will be required to dole out payouts totaling Sh1.745 billion.

In the 10th Parliament, members pocketed Sh3.3 million grant each to purchase cars for which the government paid import duty.

However, the current beneficiaries might not enjoy the duty free facility should they choose to import the sleek cars because the Constitution eliminated such benefits.

The public outcry over hefty perks paid to lawmakers and the need to control the spiralling public wage bill prompted the SRC to review the salaries of top State officials.

The review, published in the Kenya Gazette last month, saw the salaries of MPs slashed from Sh850,000 to Sh532,000.

In addition, the SRC reviewed the terms of a raft of benefits for State officers, among them the scrapping of the car grant.

Under the new terms, MPs would be entitled to a car loan of up to Sh7 million repayable at an interest rate of 3 per cent a year within five years or before end of term.

MPs, however, vowed to reject the car loan, which is “subject to availability of funds.”

“We were told to take a loan amounting to Sh7 million for purposes of buying a car but we all agreed we are not going to take a loan. We have however agreed that each one of us will be given a Sh5 million grant,” said an MP who did not want to be identified.

MPs will also benefit from Sh20 million mortgage facility — charged an interest rate of 3 per cent a year — through the parliamentary scheme payable over five years.

But the pay cuts have infuriated MPs who have made public the start of a process they hope will lead to the removal of members of the commission headed by Mrs Sarah Serem.

Igembe South MP Mithika Linturi presented to the Clerk of the National Assembly a petition designed to trigger a tribunal for the removal of the commissioners on allegations of violating the constitution.

Divisions have, however, emerged among MPs over the retaliation campaign over slashing of their salaries.

On Friday, a reliable source told The Standard On Saturday that in a letter delivered to Parliament on Monday, Serem wrote to the Parliamentary Service Commission with the offer for Sh5 million-car grant.

In the letter the SRC, citing the concurrence of Treasury, expresses the interest to offer each MP a grant of Sh5 million to purchase a vehicle.

National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi has reportedly received the letter.

We established that the sweetheart deal followed a flurry of correspondence.

The standoff

First, PSC wrote to Treasury seeking the grant arguing that it had been budgeted for before the SRC decree. But Treasury reportedly wrote back to PSC saying only the Salaries Commission had authority on the matter.

On Friday, Muturi declined to comment on the matter. Serem neither picked our calls nor responded to a text message left on her phone.

It has also emerged that due to the standoff over the salary cuts, MPs are yet to be paid their salary. It is on record that PSC is in talks with the SRC over the pay dispute.

Muturi said that PSC, which he chairs, is of the view that SRC overstepped its mandate by purporting to repeal an Act of Parliament through a Kenya Gazette notice.

“You cannot issue a Gazette notice purporting to repeal an Act of Parliament without taking it through Parliament,” he said, referring to the National Assembly Remuneration Act. “What the Serem Commission is trying to do amounts to an illegality.”

The Speaker argued that SRC is a constitutional commission just like the PSC, hence it could not have superior powers.He argued that Article 94 Section 5 provides that no person or body, other than Parliament, has the power to make provision having the force of law in Kenya except under authority conferred on it by the Constitution or by legislation.

The Speaker said article 116 of the Constitution contemplates the powers to increase payment of members of Parliament rests with Parliament, only that such a payment can only benefit the next Parliament. ?Muturi said the action by SRC would set what he termed a dangerous precedent that can easily be abused by even the private sector and effectively cut down remuneration of employees against international labour laws.

Gwasi MP John Mbadi described the failure to provide for a grant for car purchase to MPs as “discriminatory omission.”

Mr Mbadi said all other State officers, especially those serving in the constitutional commissions, had been provided with a chauffeured government vehicle.