By Allan Kisia
Nairobi, Kenya: The row over salaries deepened with Members of the National Assembly vowing to fight back using all the powers they have.
MPs appear to be headed for a collision course with President Uhuru Kenyatta, whom they said must face the same pay cut as they did.
MPs said they will slash the salary of the President if they calculate and find out that the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) had not reduced it by 57 per cent. They noted that if the SRC reduced the President’s salary by 57 per cent during the review, then they will not touch it.
The threats came as Uhuru urged MPs to accept the planned pay cut. Mr Kenyatta had said cutting MPs' salaries would ease public sector wage demands and free up cash for investment aimed at stimulating economic growth.
But instead of accepting a cut imposed by the SRC, MPs voted on Tuesday to nullify a gazette notice that slashed their salaries.
Thursday, four MPs indicated that come Tuesday (when their short recess comes to an end), legislators will initiate retaliatory measures since the House is “under siege and under threat.”
“Some people are thinking that Parliament has no powers. We want to invite them on Tuesday to see for themselves what we can do,” said Suba MP John Mbadi.
With him at the press conference at Parliament Buildings were legislators Jimmy Angwenyi (Kitutu Chache North), Mithika Linturi (Igembe South) and Bare Shill (Fafi).
The MPs said they want to save Kenyans from harsh economic time after receiving a “wake up call.”
Mbadi said the House is going to lower the VAT, remove income tax for Kenyans earning Sh50, 000 and below and lower the fuel levy among other measures “to improve the lives of Kenyans.”
“Commissions which think they are too independent will see it. We are going to reduce their budgets by 57 per cent,” said Mbadi.
He added that they will also look at the Judiciary and other State officer’s salaries and reduce them further if they had not been lowered by 57 per cent by the SRC.
Angwenyi said their efforts are aimed at bringing the cost of living down. “The fuel levy is too high. The levy is designed to improve the state of our roads but as we know, our roads are in very bad conditions,” he added.
Shill noted that the very rich will be taxed heavily as he advised Kenyans not to throw stones if they live in glass houses.
“Maybe we have not been doing our job properly. This time, we will make sure we do our job properly. Those who have been struggling with life will live comfortably,” he stated.
Mbadi said MPs do not need the Finance Bill to institute the measures. “We will reduce the salaries in the Budget Estimates and not the Appropriation Bill,” he explained.
He further said the MPs will make new laws if they are needed in their plans. “MPs can make any law, even the non-existent law. If that law is not there, we will create it,” he added.
He said Parliament has its powers and they have not apologies for that. “We will show who is in charge. It is not about revenge though,” he added.
Angweyi said the cost of living is too high with the major cause being taxation. “You do not know when you will receive a wake-up call. If you are not married, you will come across a beautiful girl and then get a wake-up call,” he explained.
Linturi defended Parliament and said legislators have been working since their swearing-in ceremony.
He said they cannot allow threats from institutions that they don’t report to. “Achieving a double digit economic growth will be impossible if this is the trend we are going to take,” he added.
Earleir, SRC chairperson, Sarah Serem, came under scathing attack from the Igembe South MP following her stand on the salary row.
Linturi, who recently initiated the process of disbanding the SRC team, termed Serem’s promise on Wednesday that she will sue anybody who effects an illegal pay for MPs as wishful thinking.
“We are giving a lot of time and focus on Serem, who on my view is nobody. Somebody who for one reason or another is just drunk with this very little power conferred to her by the Constitution,” said the MP.A
On Wednesday, Serem warned the Parliamentary Service Commission that they will be breaking the law if they pay MPs the 851,000 shillings. She maintained that Parliament broke the law when they voted to revoke gazette notice that set their salaries at Sh532, 000.
Speaking separately to journalists Thursday, Ndhiwa MP Augostino Neto said commissioners at the SRC had gone “amok.”
He noted that the Constitution Implementation Commission chairman Charles Nyachae will be appearing before the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee to give his budget.
“That is the paradox. He might be thumping his chest out there but down here, he knows who cracks the whip,” he stated.
Nyachae has indicated that he will take legal action against the Parliamentary Service Commission and individual Members of Parliament if they draw salaries above the Sh532,000 set by the SRC.
Linturi further said the arguments brought forward by Serem are not based on any fact. He said Parliament acted within its legal mandate when it declared the gazette notice that slashed their salaries illegal.
He argued that the gazette notice was a mere communication to MPs because it did not borrow from any Act of Parliament.
“Serem thinks that the mandate of making the law is on her. If she wanted to make law, she should have vied for MP,” he added
On Tuesday, MPs unanimously voted for a motion by the Committee on Delegated Legislation that reinstated the huge pay after overturning a Gazette Notice that pegged it at Sh532, 000.
However, Serem insisted that the commission was the only body mandated under the constitution to set the salary of all state officers terming the MP’s move as an exercise in futility.
Serem warned that anyone who effects the illegal pay for MPs will be held into account and probably face prosecution for economic crimes.
MPs, soon after their swearing-in ceremony, moved to ensure a salary increment was top in the agenda.
Mid this month, protesters in Nairobi released a pig and about a dozen piglets outside Parliament Buildings to show their anger at newly elected MPs demanding higher salaries.
The unusual demonstration, organised by civil society groups, was intended to portray the MPs as greedy.
MPs however insist that they are justified to demand higher salaries.
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