It is a mixed fortune for MPs after the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) scrapped car grants and allowances but awarded them house allowance and an improved mortgage.

Members of County Assemblies (MCA) who will also assume office after the August 9 elections have also had their sitting allowances chopped.

Commission chairperson Lyn Mengich announced that mileage allowances will also be abolished in the term starting September this year.

Speakers of Parliament and those of County Assemblies and County Executive Committee Members (CECs) will also be subject to the new guidelines.

“Sitting allowance for plenary sessions in the two Houses of Parliament and County Assemblies is abolished and ceases to be payable,” she stated.

She said during a meeting with the officials of the Editors Guild, that the commission was ready for any lawsuit should MPs decide to challenge the Gazette Notice as they did in 2017.

Speakers of the National Assembly and Senate will both earn a gross salary of Sh1.1 million. Their deputies will earn Sh928,000. An MP and Senator will each earn Sh710,000.

An MP will be provided with a motor vehicle reimbursement of Sh7.5 million for the purchase of a car of engine capacity not exceeding 3000cc.

They will also be reimbursed a claimable mileage of one return journey per week at the rate of Sh116.63 per kilometre, based on a car of engine capacity not exceeding 3000cc.

Committee sittings

The commission stated that the government will save at least Sh382 million in plenary sitting allowances for the 416 members. A uniform sitting allowance of Sh5,000 is payable to the National Assembly which has 349 MPs and 67 senators.

Before they adjourned the House, MPs held a Kamukunji (an informal sitting of MPs) where commissioners of the Parliamentary Service Commission planned changes in their perks.

However, the committee sitting allowance has been retained. A committee chairperson gets 15,000 per sitting, a vice-chair gets Sh12,000, while a member gets Sh7,500.

Mengich said the commission is in the process of converting the allowances into a standard package to be paid as part of allowances.

The commission however turned down a proposal by MPs to have them get a Sh1.2 million salary, the same as Court of Appeal judges. They will continue earning Sh710, 000 taxable salaries.