This archive report was first published on 10 July 2019.
Published on July 10, 2019, a heated discussion on TV highlighted the proposed increase in MPs' salaries from Sh1.1 million to between Sh2.1 million and Sh2.9 million.
During the discussion, Kiambu County Senator Kimani Wamatangi made a shocking revelation about his own salary, stating that he takes home only Sh640 out of his Sh1 million gross salary.
Wamatangi explained that he has never been paid a single allowance of mileage, even when on official duty outside Nairobi, since 2013.
He also revealed that he took a mortgage, but his payslip reads Sh640 after deductions, leaving him to wonder why MPs are being targeted for their perceived 'lucrative perks'.
Wamatangi emphasized that he is able to sustain his family from the proceeds of his businesses and that he spends his personal earnings on social welfare in his county and elsewhere.
He questioned the obsession with targeting MPs, saying, 'If I wasn’t a businessman, my children would sleep hungry even if I had bought that house, they would have a home but no food.'
Also supporting a pay rise is Rarieda MP Otiende Amollo, who claimed that he has never been as broke as he is now as an MP.
Amollo stated that he has been the Ombudsman and has been in public practice, but since becoming an MP, he hasn’t bought a house or anything else, using his salary to help his constituents for the first seven days after his election.
