PSC, salaries team in talks over MPs' pay

National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi (left) is sworn in as Chairman of the Parliamentary Service Commission. Looking on is Defence and Foreign Relations committee chairman Adan Keynan April 3, 2013. Mr Muturi said PSC is in talks with the Salaries and Remuneration Commission with a view to reaching a compromise on the lawmakers' pay. ANTHONY OMUYA  

By ALPHONCE SHIUNDU ashiundu@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted  Wednesday, April 3  2013 at  16:17

The Parliamentary Service Commission is in talks with the Salaries and Remuneration Commission with a view to reaching a compromise on the lawmakers' pay.

Speaker of the National Assembly Justin Muturi said the talks were on-going.

“We should allow the on-going negotiations to go on, and whatever decision is reached, will be made public,” said Mr Muturi, flanked by the commissioners, the Clerks of the Senate and the National Assembly, and senior managers of Parliament’s administrative wing.

The closest Mr Muturi came to divulging the tone of the negotiations was when he said both the SRC and the PSC were independent constitutional commissions with specific mandates as laid out in the Constitution.

Mr Muturi was sworn in Wednesday as PSC's chairman.

He said the “PSC will operate under the Constitution and under enabling legislation” to do its job.

The PSC is under pressure from MPs to talk to the SRC, because the Sh532,500 monthly pay per a member of Parliament or a Senator cannot support the loan facilities that the MPs are entitled to. If the negotiations fail, the lawmakers have vowed to amend the Constitution and the SRC Act.

It is understood that the MPs told the SRC to look at their remuneration bearing in mind the reports of the various tribunals that have previously determined the pay of the lawmakers.

The MPs are entitled to a car loan of Sh7 million, and a house loan of Sh20 million, both to be paid back at three per cent interest within their term. The term of the Eleventh Parliament expires in June 2017, to allow for elections to be held on the second week on August. The MPs will have to repay the loan within four years and three months.

The calculations show that if an MPs takes full advantage of the facilities, then, they will have to pay back between Sh545,000 and Sh570,000 so that they clear the debt within their term as prescribed in the fine-print.

With a taxable pay of Sh532,500, it will be difficult for the lawmakers who get the full amount to pay back. The calculations of the MPs who took the matter to the PSC show that if the salaries commission holds its ground, then, they will be in the red to the tune of Sh210,000 –and that’s just for them to meet their obligations regarding the loan facilities.

On Wednesday, the commissioners kept mum on the details of the talks.

The PSC deals with the welfare of the MPs, and it will be its job to convince the Salaries and Remuneration Commission, the MPs, the taxpayers and the Treasury that the lawmakers need more money, and that the government can afford to shoulder that cost without bursting the wage bill.

Public pressure forced the SRC to cut the pay of MPs from Sh851,000 per month to a minimum of Sh532,500 per month.

Jeremiah Nyegenye, the Clerk of the Senate, was sworn in as the Secretary of the PSC. The Clerk of the National Assembly Justin Bundi, relinquished that seat.

For a balance of power between the Senate and the National Assembly, the Constitution distributed the chairman’s seat to the Speaker of the National Assembly, and the secretary’s seat to the Clerk of the Senate.