Senators get Sh15m each to manage county offices

The Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC) has ignored calls from the National Assembly and splashed Sh1 billion for senators' offices in the counties.

The amount is six times what had been allocated to the senators for their county offices in the current financial year, having risen from Sh185 million to Sh1.26 billion.

Each senator will now get at least Sh15 million to run their offices in the counties during the last financial year before the next General Election.

The National Assembly had opposed a similar allocation, saying that such a large amount of money should not be given to politicians during elections campaign period. They also argued that there was no mechanism for senators to manage the Monitoring and Evaluation Fund.

This came days after MPs rejected the Sh332 million that the National Treasury had given senators in the current financial year.

Also included in the Sh32 billion budget for the bicameral Parliament, is another Sh1 billion that the PSC wants to use to buy a large parcel of land to set up a training school for lawmakers and parliamentary staff. The allocation is made under the Centre for Parliamentary Studies (CPST) in Karen, Nairobi.

Construction works

"There will be a request put out showing the size of the land required and people will bid. That money also includes a budget for some construction works at CPST," said a source within the PSC.

The law requires that money be available first before the Government takes up any other project.

The bulk of the budget money is earmarked to pay for salaries and allowances for members of Parliament in both Houses. The rest of the money will be shared out for foreign and domestic travel for MPs, paying for services and goods and even for paying toward the construction of the multi-storey office block.

The total recurrent budget for the two Houses and the commission is Sh27 billion – Sh17 billion for the National Assembly and Sh10.5 billion for the PSC and the Senate. For the development budget, the three arms of Parliament will share out Sh4.5 billion.

The story of pay and perks taking the huge chunk of the budget remains the same, this time with senators getting Sh2.6 billion, the PSC Sh1.6 billion, and the National Assembly taking the lion's share of Sh10.5 billion.

"These estimates will enable the Parliamentary Service Commission to implement its programmes, activities and projects in line with its 2008-2018 Strategic Plan," Speaker Justin Muturi, who is the chairman of the PSC said in the forwarding note of the estimates tabled in the House by Eldas MP Adan Keynan.

The refurbishment of the Senate will take Sh500 million, while that of other parliamentary buildings and offices will Sh450 million. The PSC has also set aside Sh50 million for the construction of a building on that land at the CPST.

At least Sh90 million will be used to buy new cars for National Assembly Clerk's Office, while Sh155 million will be used to buy furniture.