The Kenyan legislators are cunning in their quest to constantly fill their pockets to the brim, with hard-earned taxpayers money. Let's look at the 5 ridiculous ways that they have plotted to milk money from citizens.
On top of the list is the dust-raising house allowance. The legislators awarded themselves a cool Ksh 250,000 house allowance. This move saw them engage in a battle of wits and legal tussles with the Salaries and Remuneration Committee (SRC) over the past three months.
The second channel of enriching themselves is the latest model dubbed as the "Domestic Facilitation Fee" that entitles each MP to between Ksh 18,200 and Ksh 24,000 per night.
Parliamentary business is conducted between Tuesday and Thursday, meaning the MPs and senators can claim the money for four nights — Monday to Thursday. This means that they can now claim a whooping Ksh 96,000 each per week and up to Ksh 384,000 per month in night allowance.
The third one is the mileage claims. The legislators want to demand payment even for the days that they are not in Parliament. For the period between Friday and Monday, the lawmakers are entitled to mileage claims calculated on the basis of the distance between Parliament Buildings and an individual MP’s constituency.
The fourth way is increasing the current sitting allowance. The MPs are fighting for the increase of their plenary sitting allowance to Ksh 7,500 from Ksh 5,000 per session, saying that it motivates them to attend the sessions and participate in debates.
In this new strategy, they also want the committee sitting allowances increased from the current Ksh 5,000 to Ksh 7,500 and that of the committee chairpersons raised to Ksh 15,000 from the current Ksh 8,000.
The fifth laughable way is through their car grants. The lawmakers now demand that their current car grants should be doubled from the current Ksh 5 million to Ksh 10 million. They claim that they deserve to have top of the range, four-wheel drive vehicles for all of them. The reason behind this entitlement is that their current cars cannot withstand the rigours of their journey as they commute to and from their constituencies.
Kenyans have at different times gone to the streets to demonstrate against the MPs pay which they feel is draining their hard-earned salaries through taxation.
