Trouble Ahead: Kenyan MPs Raise Their Pension by 700 Percent

The Kenyan taxpayer faces a tough future once again after Members of Parliament decided to increase their own pension by 700 percent.

The amount will now have to be paid a Kenyan taxpayer who is already facing tough economic times and with the county struggling with huge foreign debts running into more than four trillion shillings.

The pension for Honorable Members has now been raised from 262 million shillings t0 1.7 billion shillings between the 1st of July 2018 to June 2019.

The same pension is expected to hit 2.7 billion shillings by July 2020 and even further by the time the current parliament will be leaving office.

The increased pension has already been included in the national budget for 2018/2019 financial year which has been since been presented to parliament.

Apart from carrying the burden of current MPs, the taxpayer will also have to foot more than 15 billion shillings in pending pensions, with the largest amount of it going for a one-off payment for 196 former Members of Parliament who lost their seats in the last general elections.

According to the National Treasury, the number of retirees is expected to increase from 19,300 to 19,800 with the monthly pension moving from 71.8 billion shillings to 104 billion shillings.

The rise in pension comes even as the government struggles with a huge foreign debt that is more than 4 trillion shillings. The government is also planning to take a third Eurobond, months after taking the second one, a move that will see the taxpayer further overstretched.

It also comes at a time President Uhuru Kenyatta is trying to leave a legacy in his final term through his Big 4 Agenda that includes construction of more than 500,000 affordable housing units for Kenyans.