SRC should resist MPs’ intimidation on salaries

Kenyan lawmakers have a penchant for increasing their salaries on a whim. This is largely because politics is considered a lucrative avenue to accumulate wealth through employment and corruption.

The other main driver is that electoral processes are extremely expensive due to the financial expectations that the electorate places on their elected representatives. But this is no excuse for the greedy and insensitive display of wealth by our politicians.

This was one of the top complaints against MPs during the June-July Gen Z protests that saw youngsters storm Parliament. The youths were angered about President William Ruto’s proposed taxes, failed university funding model, police brutality and access to credit.

Despite the high cost of living aided by legislative decisions made by MPs, those in leadership positions continue to award themselves huge salaries that appear to mock the rest of the citizens.

We have a situation in which MPs earn millions of shillings in salaries and allowances while those who voted for them can hardly afford a meal, pay school fees for their children or buy medicine.

But this greed cannot continue unabated. MPs must be reminded that they are public servants and that their salaries should reflect the reality of the country’s economic situation and human-resource compensation trends.

That is why we are alarmed by a warning from MPs to the approved nominees for the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) against touching the lawmakers’ salaries.

Yesterday, while discussing the nominees’ roles, the lawmakers called on them to set new salaries for MPs immediately and not wait until the end of the 13th Parliament to “play populist politics”. This not only amounts to bullying but also interference by MPs in the mandate of the commission.

The SRC has over the years been engaged in a war of words with legislators over their perks, with the latest such tiff happening in July last year when the agency was forced to eat humble pie and rescind a directive freezing increases in the salaries of State and public officers.

We ask members of the commission to execute their mandate as guided by the Constitution and resist any intimidation by MPs.