Politics
Kenya: Protesters and civil society score big win – force legislators to take pay cut
Kenyans protesting against salary demands of their legislators. PHOTO/Thomas Mukoya/Reuters
(Reuters) – Kenyan members of parliament, among the best paid in Africa, have bowed to public anger by accepting their first pay cut – but only in exchange for a tax-free car grant, pensions and extra allowances, officials said on Wednesday.
The announcement of the reduction – to around Ksh 6.38 million (approximately US$75,000) a year from the US$120,000 members of the last parliament earned – came a day after hundreds massed outside parliament denouncing the members of parliament “MPigs”.
“Don’t like the pay? Quit,” the protesters shouted.
Analysts said the agreement was part of a compromise between the legislators and the country’s Salaries and Remuneration Commission, which sets public pay.
Kenya’s new President Uhuru Kenyatta has backed the commission, in his bid cut Kenya’s vast public sector wage bill to free up cash for investment in education, health and infrastructure.
“It’s a win-win situation for both sides,” said commission spokesman Ali Chege.
The lower US$75,000 annual basic salary was originally set by the commission before closely-fought March elections.
But Kenya’s newly-elected legislators rejected that ruling soon after coming to power and in May overwhelmingly voted to raise their pay back to the old rate – many times higher than the country’s minimum wage.
Kenyatta urged the legislators to have a rethink, and the salaries commission said on Wednesday a deal had been struck.
The legislators argue that they need high wages because constituents expect them to provide charitable support.
The new pay amounted to Ksh 532,000 (US$ 6,228) a month. France and India – both with higher per capita income compared to Kenya – pay lawmakers the equivalent of about Ksh 522,000 (US$ 6,111) and Ksh 584,000 (US$ 6,836) respectively, the salaries commission said earlier this year.
“It was a compromise on both sides, a retreat for MPs in the face of public pressure. It also allows the salaries commission to save face, although it yielded ground,” said Macharia Munene, a lecturer on international relations at the United States International University in Nairobi.