Embakasi East Member of Parliament Babu Owino has revealed that his expenditure towards helping his constituents makes the bulk of his monthly spending.
Speaking at K24 on Thursday, Babu indicated that out his monthly salary, he often has to bail out his constituents on different things including paying school fees and rent.
"If you look at my payslip, I almost get nothing every month, because I use this money to pay school fees for students, to help pay hospital bills, some people come to me that need rent, and there are projects that youth want. I have to go deep into my pockets and do something about it," he stated.
[caption caption="Babu Owino in a past event"]
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Put to task on whether some of the projects should not be funded by CDF, Babu indicated that the fund is meant for specific authorized projects unlike the fundraisers and other funding requested by constituents.
"You have to help these people by the end of the day. You can't depend on CDF to do harambees to pay hospital bills. you have to give it," he noted.
The legislator further added: "Unlike when we were campaigning when there was a diversion in the people, were being approached for help. Right, now everyone is converging to a specific person. The responsibility is added."
Although noting that helping his constituents takes the greatest chunk of his salary, Babu added that it is an expenditure that he never regrets.
"I had the option of going to Russia for the World Cup on my own funding, but I had to attend to my constituents first," the MP who is popular especially among the youthful population stated.
He, nevertheless, opined that the salary paid out to the MPs is burdensome going by the current economic conditions in the country.
[caption caption="Babu Owino during the interview"]
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"I am in support that any law that can lead to the reduction of these salaries is proper because we are servants," Babu stated adding that nearly 60,000 will be fired by the government according to an agreement with the IMF in order finance the Ksh3 trillion national budget.
