Kenyan MPs Secretly Pocket Sh2.25 Million Rent Allowance Each from Taxpayers Coffers

Members of Parliament allegedly secretly pocketed Sh2.25 million each in April as house allowance backdated to August 2018.

The Daily Nation reports that the payment to the 416 members of the National Assembly and Senate was made without the approval of the National Treasury and the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC).

The MPs received the payout after the Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC), resolved to pay each of the MPs Sh250,000 monthly house allowance last August.

National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi has defended the allowances, stating that MPs are entitled to a house allowance just like other workers.

“MPs are state officers as defined in the constitution. Now, if you look at the terms and conditions in the Public Service, all the other state officers get a housing allowance. Why not MPs?" poses Muturi.

“For example, CASs (Cabinet Administrative Secretaries), some of them who lost to some of these MPs, are given cars, a house allowance and then they are also given a mortgage,” he adds.

“A mortgage is not a must. We cannot force everybody to buy a house in Nairobi, so there are those who just want to get house allowance and pay rent in Nairobi and go back to their houses say in Kakamega or elsewhere.”

Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) Chairperson Lyn Mengich has told the Daily Nation that he is not aware of the payment to the MPs but insists that such a payout is illegal as it must first be approved by the commission.

“I am not aware. SRC is mandated to set salaries and remuneration of all state officers. A house allowance definitely falls under remuneration,” she says.