Monday, June 17, 2013

Lawyers protest at Kibaki send-off pay

How the Sunday Nation broke the story.
How the Sunday Nation broke the story.  NATION MEDIA GROUP
By JOHN NGIRACHU jngirachu@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted  Sunday, June 16  2013 at  23:30
The Act that set the benefits retired President Mwai Kibaki gets is unconstitutional because it was prepared without the input of the Salaries and Remuneration Commission, a member of the team that drafted the Constitution has said.
Ms Atsango Chesoni told the Nation on Sunday that because of its mandate, the SRC ought to have been involved in drafting the Presidential Retirement Benefits Act.
That law is the basis on which government officials want Parliament to approve an allocation of Sh700 million in the Supplementary estimates to buy a building to house the office of the retired President.
“The SRC should have been the one to determine the ex-president’s entitlements. Without them, there is no way to know whether this was actually bench-marked,” Ms Chesoni said.
Head of the Mars lobby group Mwalimu Mati said the allocation beats logic.
“He is a retired President and retired means retired. I do not see why we have to fork out three quarters of a billion shillings for his office,” he said. Budget and Appropriations Committee chairman Mutava Musyimi said the allocation was among the reasons his team sought a meeting with Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich on Tuesday this week.
He said the committee spent about 45 minutes discussing the issue on Thursday last week.
“It was a heated debate, a very heated debate. It is then that we decided that we have to summon the Cabinet Secretary in charge of National Treasury,” he added.
The Cabinet Secretary for the Interior, Mr Joseph ole Lenku, will also appear before the team.

No comments:

Post a Comment