NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 28 – NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 28 – The Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) has abolished sitting and mileage allowances for Members of Parliament with effect from August 9.
According to the Body’s chairperson Lynn Mengich, this will also affect speakers and County Executive Committee Members (CECs) and that transport facilitation in terms of car grants for all state officers had also been abolished.
“Sitting allowance for plenary sessions in Parliament and County assemblies is abolished and ceases to be payable. Transport facilitation benefits in the form of car grants for state officers is abolished and ceases to be payable,” she stated.
“Any remuneration and benefits not specified in the gazette notice is not payable unless subsequently set by SRC.”
Mengich pointed out that the mileage allowances which include car grants for all State Officers has been removed.
The commission’s boss further stated that the roles of the Members of Parliament and County Executive Committee and County speakers have been upgraded as a result of job evaluation.
She further pointed out that after the remuneration review cycle of the financial year 2021 to 2025, the commission deconsolidated salaries for all state officers but the gross salary remains the same.
“The salaries structures remain the same thus the gross pay has been retained except for roles that have been upgraded as a result of job evaluation. The consolidated salary has been deconsolidated and itemized into basic salary, house allowance, commuter allowance and salary market adjustment,” Mengich said.
Members of Parliament earn a gross salary of Sh710,00.
The commission had earlier rejected MP’s proposal to have them get a Sh1.2 million salary.
The National Assembly has 349 MPs while Senate has 67 members, all earning a uniform plenary sitting allowance of Sh5,000.
The National Assembly holds four sittings a week while the Senate sits three times a week.
The commission retained the MPs’ committee sitting allowance where the committee chairperson gets Sh15,000 per sitting before tax, vice-chairperson gets Sh12,000 and a member of the committee gets Sh7,500.
By scrapping the plenary sitting allowance, SRC vice chairperson Dr. Amani Komora said the commission estimates to save between Sh1 billion to 1.5 billion per year.
This is not the first time the SRC is trying to scrap off allowances for state officers and more specifically for MPs.
In 2017, The Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC) took the Commission to court accusing them of failing to comply with the law in reviewing remuneration and benefits of State officers.
