Fact-Checker: Kenyan MPs crying wolf in salaries row

MPs listen to Treasury CS Henry Rotich as he reads 2017/18 budget PHOTO.BONIFACE OKENDO

NAIROBI, KENYA: Last week, Gladys Wanga who is a member of the Parliamentary Service Commission accused the Salaries and Remuneration Commissions (SRC) of unfairly targeting Members of the National Assembly in the latest pay review that reduced the salaries and allowances paid out to legislators.

“The SRC circular intended to hugely bring down MPs’ salaries and allowances is in bad faith and unfairly targeting members of the legislature vis a vis other arms of government,” stated Ms Wanga, adding that the SRC had not conducted a job evaluation prior to its review.

This is incorrect since the SRC new pay structure covered all State officials, including the President, his deputy, all cabinet secretaries, the Attorney General, principal secretaries and all top ranking officers in the police and the military.

This means that all arms of Government were covered by the review and not just MPs.

Ms Wanga further accused the SRC of illegally slashing their perks against labour practices, claiming that it was unfair to reduce allowances and salaries downwards when MPs are already in office.

“30 per cent of MPs who are going to be in thisParliament were already serving in the last Parliament and for them, this will be a major reduction. Even for the new Members of Parliament, we campaigned on the basis of the salaries and allowances that were already in the public domain.”

This is also incorrect since the SRC conducted a long evaluation process in 2013 and 2014 prior to setting the new salaries.

“The recommended remuneration structure for State officers for the period 2017-2022 is anchored on comprehensive job evaluation undertaken in 2013,” said SRC in a statement released in July, accompanying the new structures.

“This is because there was no significant change in the jobs since then, hence no need for conducting another job evaluation.

It also takes into account the performance of the economy and cost of living in the country.”