MPs Unanimously Oppose 600, 000 shillings Office Cuts among State Budget Reductions

Members of Parliament (MPs) have opposed a Treasury proposal to slice down 600,000 shillings allocated to each one of them to cater for the furnishing of their offices.

On 20th September, the MPs spoke in unison in a vote that would see the allocations stay despite the biting economic times that have seen the Government demand Kenyans to pay more taxes.

The MPs voted for their office allocations to stay as they greedily forwarded recommendations announcing budget reductions on free laptops for schools, power transmission projects and repair of damaged roads.

The lawmakers commonly dotted as “Mpigs” lived up to their name as they showed their discomfort when the Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC) noted that there was lack of funds to revamp their private offices.

The MP’s brought the budget cuts announced by the Treasury to a mere 37.6 billion shillings from 55 billion shillings leaving a whopping 18 billion shillings probably to avoid interference on catering for their comfort.

The lawmaker’s employer, PSC, argued that house was in dire need of office supplies, furniture, personal computers among other basic office equipment adding that the office’s rent had also gone high

The allocation to revamp the offices will see the taxpayers’ part with 250 million shillings to cover all the 416 MP’s offices.

The 600, 000 shillings allocated for the MP’s individual office revamping this financial year has actually come down from last financial year that saw the taxpayer part with around 1 million shillings for each MP’s office revamping alone.

The MP’s are known to reject, in unison, any attempts to bring down their allowances that are openly exorbitant given the current economic difficulties but to hypocritically pass laws that are rarely in favor of the common mwananchi who votes them in, a good example being the recently passed finance bill proposals by the President Uhuru Kenyatta.