Nairobi county Senator Johnson Sakaja (left) and his counterpart from Makueni county Mutula Kilonzo Junior during their interview with Jeff Koinange on the weekly JKL Show on Citizen TV. PHOTO | CITIZEN TV
Nairobi county Senator Johnson Sakaja and his counterpart from Makueni county Mutula Kilonzo Junior have said they will accept the the court’s decision on contentious case of the MPs’ house allowances.
The two made the stand known on the contentious issue on Wednesday night while appearing on the weekly JKL Show on Citizen TV.
Parliamentary Service Commission passed Sh250,000 monthly allowance for each of the 416 members of the two Houses, backdated to August last year.
ILLEGAL
Terming the move illegal, the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) moved to court to stop the Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC) from paying MPs the house allowance.
“Public office is not an avenue for us to go and enrich ourselves, for the last seven years we have not had the house allowances, this thing is in court, we will abide by the court decision,” said Sakaja.
“I have accepted because there is no avenue to decline it, I can’t write a cheque to parliament to give that money. There is no way parliament can receive it,” he added.
MORTGAGES
MPs and Senators secretly pocketed nearly Sh1 billion in house allowances despite opposition from the Treasury and the SRC.
The allowances, adding up to Sh936 million, comprise a Sh250,000 monthly allowance for each of the 416 members of the two Houses, backdated to August last year when their employer, the PSC, resolved to pay house allowances over and above their mortgages.
Each MP had pocketed Sh2.25 million in their pay for April, the allowance amount backdated to August 2018.
National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi defended the new allowances, saying lawmakers, like other state officers, are entitled to such benefits.
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