Kenyan MPs' budget 'more than three times the global average'

NAIROBI: The budget for Kenya's two-chamber Parliament is three times what other countries set aside to run their legislatures, the inaugural report of the socio-economic audit of the Constitution has revealed.

The interim report of the Government task-force chaired by Auditor General Edward Ouko noted that while other countries with a population of between 10 and 50 million spend 0.57 per cent on their budgets on parliaments, Kenya spends 2 per cent.

This means that every Kenyan pays Sh550 per year to keep Parliament going, because the maths of the auditors show that it costs Sh55 million to keep one MP on the job every year.

But the auditors were quick to point out that the colossal budget should not be blamed on the MPs' pay, which they said, just takes up 12 per cent of the total parliamentary budget.

"It cannot be said that the salaries are a key driver of the high cost ratio," noted the report of the task force commissioned by the National Assembly, and submitted to the Budget and Appropriations Committee.

Compared to India and Ghana, with a higher national wealth than Kenya, Kenyan MPs earn three times what their Indian counterparts get, while they earn one-and-half times what their Ghanaian MPs get.

The audit records that in India, an MP is paid a basic pay an equivalent of Sh135,422 per month, while in Ghana an MP is paid the equivalent of Sh333,876. The Kenyan MPs earn Sh558,758 per month, but the figure is higher given the perks.

sitting allowances

"Kenya is the poorest country in that group. Our closest comparators economically are Ghana and India, where MPs earn 60 per cent and 25 per cent respectively of what Kenyan MPs are paid," the auditors said.

In the next financial year, MPs in the National Assembly will spend Sh6 billion on sitting allowances, travel perks.

But they were afraid to make a determination on whether people get value for money for an expanded House, and that can be understood because MPs are the ones who commissioned the report.

The Parliamentary Service Commission chaired by the Speaker of the National Assembly Justin Muturi, whose job is too handle the administrative aspects of the National Assembly and the Senate, has asked the National Treasury for Sh28 billion in the next financial year.

Next year's budget for allowances paid to MPs for domestic travel is Sh400 million above the Sh1.8 billion they got in the current financial year

The National Assembly will get Sh15.16 billion, the Senate and the commission itself have been given a joint budget of Sh9.9 billion. Only Sh3.2 billion has been earmarked for the development budget to build offices, and what the commission said was "other infrastructure development within Parliament".

The commission has earmarked Sh100 million to refurbish buildings to be used by the senators, Sh500 million to buy a building, and Sh1 billion to be paid to the Chinese as part of the three-year deal for the multi-storey building being built on Harambee Avenue.

The MPs are also set to expand land for the Centre for Parliamentary Studies in Karen, with a Sh200 million budget to buy land, and Sh50 million to construct the offices.