MPs now demanding accommodation allowance when in the city for legislative business

Members of Parliament are demanding accommodation allowances at hotels to cater for the days when they are required to attend parliamentary sittings in Nairobi city.

Parliament sits for three days in the week- Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday with committee sittings normally scheduled for Mondays.

According to an article published on the Standard, this demand for hotel accommodation came after the MP’s went on a benchmarking trip to New Zealand where they found out that MP’s receive about Sh400,000 every time they travel to the capital for sittings.

Nyaribari Masaba MP, Ezekiel Machogu presented the report in his capacity of chairman of the committee.

“The committee also observed that during the financial year 2018/2019, among other programmes, the commission budgeted for facilitation of Members of Parliament accommodation when they come to Nairobi to discharge their legislative work.” read part of the report.

The report further noted that Parliamentary Service Committee had been sluggish in implementing the changes proposing that a law be invoked to compel it to act.

“The committee is, therefore, concerned and wishes to invoke the provisions of Article 254 (2) of the Constitution and recommend to the National Assembly to require the commission to report on the implementation of the matters contained in the second report of the committee adopted on August 15, 2018,” the report recommended.

The lawmakers also receive other privileges such as medical covers ,tax free pension and host other allowances that allows them to take home more than sh.1 million every month.

In addition to that, the lawmakers are demanding to know the status of procurement of new uniforms for staff, the status of negotiations with Salaries and Remunerations commission (SRC) on their mileage allowances and progress on the multi-storey office block for MPs, currently under construction.