Tuesday, July 31, 2007


Jul. 31, 2007 (Xinhua News Agency delivered by Newstex) -- Police arrest activists protesting huge payoffs by Kenyan MPs

NAIROBI, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan police on Tuesday arrested civil society activists protesting a move by the country's lawmakers' to seek nearly 90,000 U.S.dollars each as payoffs when their terms end in December.

The activists, who included Mwalimu Mati, the former head of Transparency International-Kenya, were marching to the parliament in the capital of Nairobi to petition the lawmakers to halt the ' theft of 1.4 billion shillings under the guise of unconstitutional gratuities for the sitting MPs.'

The planned severance pay for the 222 lawmakers will cost the country more than 20 million dollars and the activists called on the MPs to prioritize the plight of the poor instead of looking for campaign funds.

'We call on all Kenyans of goodwill to support former parliamentarians and civil society as they peacefully protest this national scandal. We also make a final appeal to each individual MP to vote with his or her own conscience. We will watch and tally the vote,' the activists said in their petition.

'We are concerned that the current crop of MPs are engaged in a blatant attempt to appropriate to themselves millions of shillings each in campaign funds ahead of the general election that is less than four months away.'

The Attorney-General Amos Wako is expected to move the Statute Law or Miscellaneous Bill before parliament this week.

Last Thursday, the bill survived by a whisker when Wako, the country's chief legal adviser, failed to turn up to move the motion but it would almost certainly have been passed.

The lawmakers' proposed payments come on top of annual packages of at least 140,000 U.S. dollars making them among the best-paid lawmakers in the world.

Their move has drawn condemnations from cross section of Kenyans including ministers who have since urged their colleagues to shelve the bid.

The activists said parliamentary sessions are frequently adjourned because of quorum hitch and only a handful of bills are passed each year and termed as unacceptable the legislators' plan to award themselves generous perks, noting that nearly half of Kenya's population lives below the poverty line.

'The 9th Parliament has failed to provide leadership in constitutional reform and has actually served to obstruct whatever progressive acts have emanated from outside the House. It has suffered from lack of quorum to the extent that it has been hard to find 30 of them willing to attend the chamber to debate matters of national importance,' they said.

'Just recently, Kenyans saw the national budget for 2007/8 being debated by less than 10 MPs and billions of shillings passed completely unscrutinized by our so called representatives. This is taxation without representation,' the activists said.

Under the deal senior cabinet ministers, whose pay is hiked by generous allowances and perks, stand to receive as much as 135,000 dollars when they leave office.

The east African nation's lawmakers determine their own salaries unlike in most other countries where pay perks are determined by independent committees.

Last December, President Mwai Kibaki was forced to decline pay hike following public outcry when the lawmakers nearly triple his salary. Had he accepted, Kibaki would have been one of the highest paid presidents in the world.

Newstex ID: XIN-0001-18544825


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