Raila Raises Questions as Kenya Sends 85 Representatives to ‘Useless’ US Summit

Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) leader Raila Odinga has criticized the huge expenditure by Kenyan legislators who are currently on a trip to the United States.

On Wednesday, Odinga questioned the high number of Kenyan delegation attending the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) in Nashville, Tennessee.

Kenya sent an 85-man team comprising of both Speakers of the National Assembly and Senate, MPs, Senators, MCAs, clerks and support staff, who are expected to gobble millions of shillings of taxpayers’ cash during the trip.

Daily Nation said it could not establish the exact cost of the trip but estimated it could cost the taxpayers more than Sh100 million.

In a statement, Odinga said he “finds no justification at all in Parliament and county assemblies sending such a huge delegation on a mission where a handful could come back with a report.”

Odinga added that this trip was evidence that “these institutions have money they do not know what to do with, or they simply don’t care about the burden taxpayers are bearing.”

On average, the legislator’s airfare to and from Nashville will cost between Sh355,000 and Sh587,000 for each person traveling depending on whether they are on business or economy class. The cost does not include allowances and per diems that will be paid to them.

Speakers of Parliament pocket about Sh75,000 as a daily subsistence allowance for travel to the US, MPs pocket Sh65,000, while MCAs take Sh42,600, according to the Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA).

The Kenyan delegation is the largest amongst the countries represented in the US conference followed by Nigeria with 20 representatives, Daily Nation reported. Most other countries sent between one and six legislators to represent them.