Homa Bay County Woman Representative [PHOTO/sde.co.ke]
The Sh600 salary allocated for MPs by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) is too little and befits only beggars.
This is according to Homa Bay Woman Representative-elect Gladys Wanga.
Leading an onslaught of elected MPs to reject the salary, Wanga who is a member of the outgoing PSC argued that the new salaries was going to rob Parliament of its prestigious status, and that they will not accept anything less than what they were taking home in the 11th Parliament.
"There is a mission to demean MPs and reduce them to beggars as was the case in the 1990s, when elected leaders would go begging in Government offices on Fridays. We will not sit down and watch as this plan is systematically executed," she said.
In July this year, SRC chairperson Sarah Serem introduced a new payment structure that lowered the salaries of State officers starting with the president and going up to Members of the County Assembly, an exercise that rescued over Sh8 billion from the previously bloated public service wage bill.
She reduced the MP and senator salaries from about Sh710,000 to Sh621,000, cancelling the Sh5,000 sitting allowance paid for attending a plenary session.