Jonathan Manyindo
31 July 2007
Nairobi — Debate on whether MPs should be given a golden handshake at the end of the current Parliament continued yesterday with an MP saying the proposed Sh5.9 million payout was too little.
Mwatate MP Marsden Madoka said the amount was "not commensurate with the services MPs offer to the public.
He said if the electorates knew the financial tribulations their MPs go through, they would recommend that they get more.
Speaking on the telephone from his Mwatate office, Mr Madoka said the package being proposed for MPs should be reviewed.
"This is not sendoff pay, as the media is putting it. It is gratuity like the one workers in both the public and the private sector are given when they retire," he argued.
He accused the media of blowing the issue out of proportion and forgetting that it was one of the recommendations made by the Saed Cocker commission.
He said the commission had gone around the country and that Kenyans had given their views, saying their MPs' pay should be increased and that they should receive a gratuity so that they could live a good life after Parliament.
Mr Madoka gave the example of former MPs from Taita Taveta District, whom he said were leading a miserable life.
"It is only those who managed to loot resources while in Parliament who are still enjoying life after losing their seats."
But trade union leaders in the district, among them the Kenya National Union of Teachers, the Kenya Union of Plantations and Agricultural Workers Union and the Kenya Food and Allied Workers Union have condemned the proposal.
Abject poverty
Mr Richard Juma of the plantation workers' union said it was wrong for parliamentarians to fight for their own interests while workers on sisal farms were languishing in abject poverty.
Instead, Mr James Mwasmbo, the secretary of the Taita Taveta branch of the teachers' union, said teachers in the district should be paid hardship allowance.
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