The President of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta given the strongest indication that he will stop any move by the country’s lawmakers to have their salaries increased.
Kenya’s newly elected Members of Parliament have been unhappy with attempts to slash their salaries, a decision taken by the Salaries and Remunerations Commission (SRC).
The body which sets public sector salaries stated last month that it would slash salaries of top officials, including the president and lawmakers.
The reductions are expected to save the country about $82.44 million per year. But the MPs who can earn as much as $10,000 a month in salary and other benefits on Wednesday said they will oppose the cuts.
“We will not agree to those proposals,” Gladys Wanga, an elected lawmaker who sits on the parliamentary service commission, told Reuters.
On Thursday, President Kenyatta said he will not approve any bill passed by the lawmakers seeking to have their salaries increased, if his election victory is validated by the Supreme Court.
“We’re not on the same page… I’ll not endorse any increase even if they want to hate me,” Mr Kenyatta said at a meeting with heads of Catholic schools at Catholic University of Eastern Africa in Nairobi.
The President said when the MPs “were contesting for the seats, they knew the salaries so they cannot turn around even before they are sworn in and start complaining.”
Kenyan MPs are among the best paid in the world.
President @UKenyatta vows to block any Bill passed by newly-elected MPs to increase their salaries. #MPsPay pic.twitter.com/Nu7PrZbVL6
— Robin Njogu (@robinnjogu) August 24, 2017
Source: Africafeeds.com
