House of Greed: Kenyan MPs Now Award Themselves”Night Allowances”

Kenyan Members of Parliament go by various nicknames courtesy of hungry, angry and devastated voters.

Call them Pigs, MPigs, Greedy Pigs, Hyenas or Hungry Hyenas, they don’t care. But one thing is always clear, Kenyan MPs are greedy.

Few months ago, the MPs awarded themselves “House Allowances” of 250,000 shillings per month for each member. Kenyans protested, especially, after the allowances were backdated to the year 2018.

The Salaries and Renumeration Commission (SRC), went to court. The court, stopped the payment, giving the taxpayer a short breather though the Hyenas look like they will carry the day.

As if the “House Allowance” of 250,000 shillings was not enough, MPs have now awarded themselves 18,500 per day as “Night Allowances”. Interesting.

MPs attend sittings from Tuesday to Friday every week, four days in total. This means, each MP will take home 74,000 shillings per week, or 294,000 shillings per month.

The Speaker of the National Assembly, Mr. Justin Muturi has defended the “Night Allowance.” He says it is justified. Well, he defended the “House Allowance,” and this shouldn’t come as a shock.

At one time, an MP by the name Peter Kaluma said that Kenyan MPs are among the “poorly paid” legislators in the world. Truth is, our very own greedy Hyenas are among the highly paid legislators in the world.

In a country where the unemployment rate just hit 43.5 percent, and with more than 400,000 SMEs dying annually, one would expect a mature discussion from MPs to help their electorate. But No. Never. Not a Kenyan MP.

Kenyan MPs are divided along political party line but they will never differ over greed. Greed unites them. Every time it comes on discussing their allowances, they speak in one voice.

Who should be blamed for the kind of MPs we have? The voter, of course. The Kenyan voter is like a warthog, no, worse than a warthog. Forgets during voting and regains memory after voting.

Meanwhile, let the Pigs enjoy as they await being voted in in 2022. Have a good day.