A proposed package for MPs and Senators has reignited a familiar constitutional fight over who controls the pay and perks of state officers. The criticism is that lawmakers cannot lawfully set their own salaries, allowances and retirement benefits without the Salaries and Remuneration Commission.
The proposal under scrutiny would give MPs a higher salary, a rent-free house on top of the Sh20 million mortgage facility already available to them, a government vehicle and wider medical cover for the 416 legislators. Senators would also receive a monitoring allowance drawn from a Sh2 billion annual fund.
The argument against the plan is that Kenya’s lawmakers are already among the best paid in the world, even by comparison with legislators in the United States, Britain, France and Japan. That concern is sharpened by the country’s debt burden, a weak economy and pressure for reforms that would reduce the wage bill.
The Constitution of Kenya 2010 created the SRC precisely to stop state officers from awarding themselves pay and benefits without oversight. Under Article 230, the commission is supposed to review remuneration and benefits for all state officers and advise both national and county governments, while taking into account fiscal sustainability, productivity, performance, transparency and fairness.
The dispute is not new. In 2013, Parliament passed retirement benefits legislation covering leaders and state officers, including the President, the Prime Minister, the director-general of the National Intelligence Service, the Inspector-General of the National Police Service, the Secretary to the Cabinet, the Attorney-General, the Chief Justice and deputy chief justice, the Speakers of the National Assembly and Senate and their deputies, and the Director of Public Prosecutions. The SRC was not consulted.
The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights challenged that law, and in September 2015 Justice Isaac Lenaola declared the Presidential Benefits (Amendment) Act of 2013 unconstitutional and invalid. He held that Parliament had acted unlawfully by failing to involve the SRC in setting the retirement package for former presidents and other state officers.
That ruling is now being used to argue that the latest proposals must also go through the SRC before any implementation. The position is that matters touching on salaries, remuneration, allowances, retirement, benefits and inflation adjustments for all state officers fall within the commission’s exclusive mandate.
Beyond the legal question, the criticism is political and economic. The article warns that lawmakers risk deepening public anger at a time when Kenyans are already struggling with taxes, inflation, food prices, corruption and the cost of living.
The SRC is therefore being urged to defend its independence and insist that Parliament follows constitutional procedure before approving any new benefits for itself.
Demas Kiprono is a human rights lawyer. Email: Twitter: @kipdemas.
