Nairobi MCAs will move to court for guidance if the Salaries and Renumerations Commission does not effect a 2018 Court ruling that qualifies them for the perks.
Led by majority leader Abdi Hassan Guyo, the MCAs have lamented the hardship they have to go through,with what they termed as meager and discriminatory earnings.
The MCAs new push is pegged on the 2018 Highcourt ruling over the same in the petition No. 328 of 2016.
In a motion mGuyo on Thursday,the legislators castigated SRC for discriminating them against other state officers.
Guyo said MCAs are classified as state officers which means they should be allowed to have house allowances.
“This is a resolution that was passed by the County Assembly Forum and SRC knows it very well,” Guyo said.
‘He added: “As the Majority leader I earn less than SH 50,000 after reductions so you can imagine what other members earn. How do you expect we oversight a Sh 35. 3 billion budget with such a salary of almost Sh 50,000 after reductions. Is it possible?’
High Court Judge Chacha Mwita in the Constitutional Petition No. 328 of 2016 ruled on October 5 last year that deputy governors were entitled to house allowances like other state officers.
Mwita found that failure to award the deputy county chiefs housing allowances was discriminatory, unjustifiably selective, and contrary to Article 27 of the Constitution.
Guyo also condemned SRC’s move in July 10, 2019 which saw the increase of the executive salaries while the legislators who oversight have been left aside.
“SRC should be disbanded if it cannot apply its mandate fairly,” he said.
Minority whip Peter Imwatok supported the motion,noting the being an MCA in Nairobi is same as being a member of the national assembly.
” Our mandate is more or less the same to that of our counterparts in the national assembly and as such we deserve this,” lmwatok said.
Nairobi West MCA Maurice Gari said that legislators welfare should be considered and that SRC should honor the court ruling
“The basic salary an MCA earn if we deduct family expenses, loans and what we use in the ward from our personal pockets, one can easily remain with Sh 7000 in the pocket,” he said
The motion was however vehemently opposed by Waithaka MCA Anthony Kiragu,who said it will further burden Wanjiku.
“If the motion is passed I will personally write to the clerk of the assembly that the house allowance should not be included in my pay slip,” he said
His counterpart from Eastleigh North, Osman Adow who also opposed the motion said it would be injustice If the MCAs award themselves hefty perks
“It will be selfish if we gain more just because our friends from the Senate and National Assembly are getting .If one feels that they are earning less, they should go and look for other jobs ,” he said
As a result of the pressure the two legislators walked out of the chambers as the debate went on.
If SRC gives in to the MCAs pursuit , the 1450 wardreps across the country will get Sh 85,000 housing allowance monthly.
Kenyan Business Feed is the top Kenyan Business Blog. We share news from Kenya and across the region. To contact us with any alert, please email us to [email protected]