By ALLAN KISIA and GEOFFREY MOSOKU,
KENYA: The swearing-in of members of the Parliamentary Service
Commission (PSC) on Monday is set to bring the raging controversy over
salaries of members of Parliament to a dramatic head this week.
Members of the National Assembly
PSC, which is headed by National AssemblySpeaker Justin Muturi must
decide early whether to sign off a monthly salary of Sh532,000 for each
MP or to pay Sh850,000 demanded by MPs and set off a constitutional
battle in the courts.
The lower figure was set by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (
SRC) on March 2 as part of a general downward review of public wages
affecting senior government figures.
But MPs elected two days after the order have objected strongly and made
it the first business of the House to censure the SRC chairperson Sarah
Serem while attempting to dissolve the commission and overturn its
review of House pay.
Members of both the National Assembly and the Senate have gone without
pay for the past three months in anticipation of an upward adjustment
but this now seems to hang in the balance.
Kenyans will be watching closely to see whether the PSC will pay MPs the
previous salaries and ignore warnings by the SRC and the Constitution
Implementation Commission (CIC) against paying the higher salaries.
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