Members of Parliament have come up with the despicable idea that they must be paid even more to insulate their pay from the taxman.

The Legislature's point of leverage on the Executive is the threat of shooting down the Finance Bill to bring government operations to a halt unless the MPs' demands are met.

It is appalling that already overpaid legislators assume that our immense reserves of perseverance will allow them to have their way yet again. We ask the Finance minister not to succumb to blackmail.

Mr Uhuru Kenyatta needs to call the MPs' bluff. If Parliament fails to pass the Finance Bill, the first casualty should be the legislators' own pay. Let us starve if we must, but this blackmail has to end.

A confluence of compelling factors led many Kenyans to accept higher pay for MPs as a shield against the whims and caprices of a rapacious Executive used to ruling Kenya shamelessly.

Improved parliamentary remuneration was viewed as inevitable if Kenyans wanted better representation. The net costs of high pay to MPs was recognised and rationalised by some as the unfortunate, but necessary, price of transition to a pluralistic society.

But recent tedious speeches by parliamentarians droning on and on about the need to be insulated from the taxman's axe underscores that attempted purchase of the morality of politicians through exorbitant pay and perks was ill-advised in the first place.

This problem has even seeped into other aspects of public life. The commissioners of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights do not want their allowances taxed either.

The massive salary paid to the former Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission chief, presumably to guard him against temptation to do the opposite of what he was hired to do, and the generous send-off benefits paid to the failed former commissioners of the defunct Electoral Commission of Kenya are further illustrations of this gluttonous, parasitic culture.

Ordinary people are understandably feeling resentful of this type of exploitation. MPs have distorted the values of service through a system of perverse incentives and behaviour that will be very difficult to change.

Public service is not about self-enrichment at the expense of the hungry masses and the guardians of public trust must frown on the use of public office for private benefit.

No one enjoys paying taxes, but when the policy-makers themselves signal to the rest of society that we must develop an allergy to being taxed then there will be no encouragement for ordinary citizens to want to pay taxes or, indeed, to obey the law.

Parliament is meant to constitute a general check upon executive power, instead of perpetrating fraud upon the very people it purports to serve. Otherwise, who will guard the guardians?

It is to Prime Minister Raila Odinga's credit that he rejected the salary of almost $430,000 per year offered to him by MPs. The Economist calculates that this would have made him proportionately one of the highest paid public servants in the world.

When measured on a purchasing-power parity basis this salary would have been 240 times greater than the country's GDP per person!

In such a venal environment, the large majority of MPs have shown that at their most extreme, they represent nothing more than an almost criminal extortion racket.

Mr Anthony Kuria and Ms Gladwell Otieno are officials of the Kenyans for Peace With Truth and Justice (KPTJ).