Members of the National Assembly and their Senate counterparts have completed repayment of Ksh460 million irregularly paid to them in allowances between October 2018 and December 2020.
Speaking to the media on Tuesday, July 12, the Clerk of the National Assembly, Michael Sialai, confirmed that the MPs completed the payment at the end of the 2021/22 Financial Year.
Sialai stated that each lawmaker was asked to refund about Ksh1 million - an amount he confirmed needed to be recovered before the end of their term.
Consequently, each member was deducted between Ksh169,000 and Ksh172,000 from their monthly salary.
"We have now fully complied with the court order, the end of June was the last deduction. It was a painful decision but we had to do it in compliance with the court order.
“While some opted to pay out what they owed in cash, we had to do the monthly deductions for others so that no member finishes his or her term with that public debt,” Sialai stated.
Owing to other financial obligations which ate into their earnings, some MPs were forced to go home without salaries after the deductions were made.
For some whose salaries were already exhausted, the money was recovered from other allowances including the mileage allotment.
The tribulations of the Legislators came after the Court of Appeal upheld the decision by the High Court asking them to refund allowances irregularly approved by the Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC).
PSC had granted the lawmakers Ksh250,000 in house and accommodation allowances without the approval of the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC).
Justices Pauline Nyamweya, Weldon Korir and John Mativo of the High Court agreed with the petition filed by SRC challenging the constitutionality of the awarding of the allowances.
The Commission argued that the Parliament employer lacked the both constitutional and statutory mandates to set salaries and allowances of MPs and parliamentary staff.
