Kenyan legislators vote to increase their own pay

{{ Kenyan members of parliament voted Tuesday to overturn a directive that had reduced their pay, hoping it will force the government to pay the higher salaries earned by legislators in the previous parliament.}}

The legislators’ pay was slashed from $126,000 to $78,000 earlier this year by a government commission which said the country’s wage bill was too high.

The Salaries and Remuneration Commission had also argued that although Kenya was among the world’s poorer economies its legislators were earning more than French legislators.

Kenya adopted a new constitution in 2010 which intended to remove the parliamentarians’ powers to set their own pay, instead giving the remuneration commission power to determine pay for all public servants, including the president.

Earlier this year, the commission cut the president’s annual pay from around $340,000 to $185,000.

The minimum wage in Nairobi is about $1,500 a year but many here live on even less.
But the parliamentarians got around the commission’s cuts by voting to overrule the pay cut.

In a well-attended session of parliament Tuesday the MPs unanimously voted to remove the directive reducing their salaries and then many walked out following the vote, even though there were other important reports and motions to be discussed.

Eric Mutua, the chairman of the Law Society of Kenya, said his organization will challenge the legislators’ attempts to disregard the commission’s directive in court.

Mutua is seeking directives from the court on whether parliament has the power to overturn the directive by the salaries commission.

Mutua said that the new constitution prevents parliamentarians from passing legislation which affects their own interests.

He said even though parliament had voted to remove the directive it did mean the government was obliged to pay them their previous salaries.

Many Kenyans see their legislators as lazy and greedy in a country where hundreds of thousands live in slums. Legislators often argue that they need high salaries to give hand-outs to poor constituents for school fees and hospital bills.