Senate Speaker Kenneth Lusaka has reportedly approved five Senators to fly out on a 14-day trip to Tokyo, Japan for the international Volleyball Matches.
The five will be attending the Women’s World Volleyball Championships in which Kenya’s Malkia Strikers are a part of.
The senators cleared include Irungu Kang’ata from Murang’a County and Christopher Lagat of Bomet according to a report by the Star.
Others are nominated senators Beatrice Kwamboka, Victor Prengei and Christine Zawadi who will each pocket up to Ksh 1.4 million per diem.
The championships are slated to commence tomorrow, Saturday.
Our efforts to contact the senate speaker were futile as our text messages and calls went unanswered.
Broken down, the state will pay for individual flights to the Asian country and according to the Parliamentary committee, each lawmaker is entitled to a daily expense of Ksh 100,000 for food and accommodation.
In comparison, Members of Malkia Strikers participating in the competition will each only pocket Ksh 80,000 for the entire period they will be in Tokyo translating to Ksh3,800 every day.
This comes weeks after the National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi denied MPs the same trip.
“He told them that sending MPs to Tokyo was a waste of time and money especially at a time when taxpayers were tightening their belts,” a source old The Star.
In June this year, the state sent 30 legislators to Russia for the world amidst uproar over Kenya not being a part of it.
Some members from the accolade winning Malkia Strikers team have, prior to leaving the country last week, complained that the government has sidelined them and their fate left to Volleyball Federation of Kenya and other sponsors.
“We are still wondering why the government is not committed to the sport considering the achievements we have posted,” wondered the team’s captain Mercy Moim.
