Wastage

Wastage: Funding Extravagance and Luxurious Lifestyle of Kenya’s Political Elites

Kenya leaders indulge themselves in opulence and luxurious lifestyles that does not befit a society at the level of Kenya’s development. The leaders pay for these strange habits using citizen’s taxes. The MPs for example set their own salaries. The President of Kenya has been earning a salary higher than that of the President of the USA and all other Heads of States in the developed world. The same applies to MPs, Senators, retired Presidents, the First Lady, the Second Lady etc. Currently, some MPs monthly income is about Ksh.3.1million ($30,000). Some claim weekly mileage of over Ksh.2.4million ($24,000) per month or Ksh.600,000 ($6,000) weekly. The MPs, are paid additional allowances for attending to Parliamentary business for which they were elected to perform. Despite these huge pay, Parliament still suffers from lack of a quorum as more MPs fail to turn up for debate. Some attend committees only to pick their pay cheque and go as they knew there may be no quorum.  Some have never made a maiden speech for a whole year and others spoke less than 5 times in a whole year. Members of County Assembly (MCAs) grant themselves huge allowances. Uasin Gishu County for example is most notorious. In addition to their salary of close to Ksh.200,000, each of the MCA paid themselves about Ksh.236,000- 312,400 per month as allowances. In Kisii, where a plate of food would cost less than Ksh.200 ($2), the MCAs paid themselves Ksh.10, 000 ($100) as meal allowances. The Presidency spent most of its budget on buying cars whose cost was nearly four times of the cars purchased for the police. Ministers, MPs and Senators have bought vehicles and paid themselves salaries and allowances that would have financed and equipped thousands of schools across Kenya.

The Kenya Good Governance Team shall end this wastage of public funds. There are 10 mechanisms that we shall deploy. For example, all Candidates for all elective positions must agree to cut their total income from the current Ksh. 3.1million ($30,000) to Ksh.200,000-500,000 ($2000-5,000) per month. Each elected person will save tax-payers more than Ksh. 2.6million per month. This will be used for development projects and employment of jobless Kenyans. The Ksh.2.6 million saved will be able to lift about 445 people out of poverty per month. Thus currently one MP impoverishes over 1000 people if each of these 445 had 3 children (and many have up to 7 children)

See this links:

1. http://www.knchr.org/portals/0/reports/living_large.pdf - Living Large- Counting the Cost of Official Extravagance in Kenya
2. VP's official residence complete
3. Kibaki To Enjoy A Hefty Send-Off Package
4. MPs greed - What 1.6B can do for Kenyans?
5. Senate Committee Proposes Hefty Pay Increments For Senators
6. Members of county assemblies reject 56.3% pay increment offered by SRC
7. GreedReloaded: New demands by senators to cost tax payer an extra KShs. 1.6b
8. Only four MPs debate TaxPayers Tribunal Bill
9. Kenyan MPs among world's highest paid
10. Highest-Paid Political Leaders In The World
11. Kenya Government Pay 
12. What The Kenyan President Earns 
13. Kenyan President Earns More Salary Than The Rest…