What it will cost you to pay MPs if Ruto gender rule idea is adopted

Estimates of the Parliamentary Budget Office show that the cost of sustaining an MP is fixed at Sh30 million annually with salary and allowances alone valued at Sh10.8 million. [Elvis Ogina, Standard] It will cost Kenyans Sh20 billion annually to cater for all the lawmakers if the proposal by President William Ruto for the establishment of a formula to guide the computation of the gender ration in the National Assembly and the Senate is adopted. Estimates of the Parliamentary Budget Office show that the cost of sustaining an MP is fixed at Sh30 million annually with salary and allowances alone valued at Sh10.8 million. The remainder cash goes to running of the constituency office and vehicle maintenance. The average cost of maintaining one constituency office per year is Sh12 million while that of mileage claims per year is approximated at Sh9.6 million. "MPs are allowed to get a Sh40 million mortgage, a one-off car grant allowance of Sh5 million per member and other administrative costs estimated at Sh15 million per member annually," a report from the Parliamentary Budget office shows. More members This means that if the proposal by Ruto to ensure the third gender rule in Parliament is observed and the number of members in both houses increased from 416 to 456, Sh1.2 billion more with be spent on MPs. Parliament's budget is two per cent of the national budget, translating to Sh39 billion. In a memorandum submitted to the Speaker of the National Assembly and the Speaker of the Senate, Ruto said that in the National Assembly, the effect of this formula would establish one third at 97 members since there already exist 47 affirmative action seats dedicated to women leadership with the maximum number required to meet the constitutional threshold being 50. The President said that since the National Assembly has 26 elected women from the constituencies, the nomination of an additional 24 would suffice to meet the constitutional requirement with the same formula applied in the Senate having 16 women nominated to the Senate. Election cycles He said there was empirical evidence to support the proposition that equipping and promoting more women to run for office will in a few election cycles bring the number contesting and winning elections to at least the same level as men. Ruto said in order to actualise this intention, he was further proposing that under an article 97(3) existing legislation be amended to establish a women's inclusion and political participation fund drawn from a percentage of funds allocated to political parties. The chairman of the Senate Justice and Legal Affairs Committee Hillary Sigei said what the President had done was creating an avenue for a conversation on the best way to ensure that the gender rule is observed and that they will be discussing it. The Bomet Senator said Ruto has set the ball rolling to ensure this constitutional requirement is achieved by Parliament and once this is done, it should be observed by the Executive and the Judiciary. "The President wants Kenyans to have a conversation on whether we need to nominate 50 MPs since as you can recall, we had a proposal to reserve some constituencies for women which was rejected since it could deny voters electing leaders of their choice," said Sigei. Nominated Senator Shakila Abdalla said having more women in Parliament will be a good idea but added that public participation is important. BBI proposals Shakila said the best thing will be to have two seats for women in counties instead of nomination which will ensure Kenyans elect the leaders that they feel will better represent their interests in Parliament as had initially been proposed in BBI. "Besides Parliament, the President should ensure women get more jobs in the Executive arm of government," said Shakila. Senate Minority Whip Ledama ole Kina said Kenyans have the capacity to decide on the leaders they want and that given the ballooning wage bil,l it would be unwise to having more nominated MPs. "In Narok County, we have for the first time a female elected MP in Narok North Agnes Pareiyo who found herself in Parliament because of her leadership qualities. I encourage more women to sell their agenda to the people and they will be elected," said the Narok Senator. Constitutional Expert Bobi Mkangi said the President is doing is to remind Parliament that there exists an advisory from the Chief Justice's office which seeks to have gender parity observed. Mkangi said Kenyans have been living with this failure for the last 12 years. "The gender rule is a constitutional requirement and should be observed. On the matter of the ballooning wage bill, we can have the salary of MPs reduced," said Mkangi. Communications expert Barrack Muluka said: "The budget can be adjusted downwards, unfortunately the Constitution cannot hence it is important for stakeholders to keenly look at the proposals."

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