Kenya Socialist Web Site
9th March 2003
Kenya MPs Salary Hike:
A Socialist Perspective
By Okoth Osewe
For Kenyans who voted for change in the December elections, one would have
expected that the newly elected 222 MPs led by those allied to Narc government
would reverse some of the most outrageous excesses that were set in motion
by the former dictatorship of Daniel arap Moi and his quickly disintegrating
KANU party. These excesses include proposals made last year that MPs salaries
and allowances be increased to more than half a million Kenyan shillings.
Although this proposal was shelved during the last days of the Moi dictatorship
because of its unpopularity, it was one of the first motions that was passed
by the ninth Parliament, much to the consternation of millions of Kenyans
whose perspective was that with the departure of KANU, plunder of public
resources through the passing of unjustified rules and legislations was over.
On Thursday 6th March, a motion was passed in Parliament which saw MPs salaries
go up from Ksh 395,000 to Ksh 495,000 a month. This is beside a Ksh 70,000
housing allowance, Ksh 75,000 car allowance and Ksh 5,000 sitting allowance.
At the end of every year, each of the 222 MPs will get Ksh 300,000 "winding
up allowance" which totals to Ksh 1.5 million if an MP serves for 5 years.
According to the package which was the product of a Tribunal Report by former
Chief Justice Majid Cocker, the MPs will also receive a Ksh 3.3 million car
grant while the salary package will cover an entertainment allowance of Ksh
60,000 a month and an extraneous allowance of Ksh 30,000 a month. The President's
salary will shoot from Ksh 150,000 to Ksh 2 million which will be tax free
followed by other hefty allowances including an entertainment allowance of
Ksh 200,000 per month.
The pay rise comes at a time when the government has been busy, trying to
convince IMF and World Bank to resume a US$ 200 million aid package that
was suspended as a result of corruption by the Moi dictatorship. Already,
the World Bank has promised US$ 50 million aid package to help the government
implement the free Primary education program while the Bank has also pledged
aid totaling to Ksh 40 billion to help the government to stock 3 million
bags of maize to avert a looming famine in the country.
UNICEF, a UN agency, has launched a global appeal for Ksh 360 million to
help finance free Primary education in 37 districts in Kenya while the European
Union has promised to hand out Ksh 14 billion for the financing of various
projects in the country. Britain, the former colonial master, has also
promised to come to the rescue of the government through a Ksh 3 billion
aid with part of the money earmarked for financing the free Primary education
pledge Narc government made during election campaigns.
Salary
hikes show that Kenyan MPs are acting in their own class interest
The point is that the increase of MPs salaries and allowances is coming at
a difficult time of crisis when the government is begging from abroad, not
just to finance the free Primary education program but also to help rehabilitate
roads, avert famine, control Aids, pay the Ksh 28 billion teachers’ salary
allowances that was shelved by Moi and to deliver other promises to the electorate
during campaigns. Added to the lack of money is the country's budget
deficit whose latest official figure stands at Ksh 65 billion and a domestic
debt of Ksh 128 billion.
At the current rate of inflation in Kenya, a minimum living wage in the country
could be approximated at Ksh 15,000. At the time the MPs decided to increase
their salaries and allowances to almost Ksh 800,000 per month, the MPs were
earning Ksh 385,000, a huge amount that guarantees a luxurious lifestyle
for the MPs at the expense of the tax payer. This is beside other allowances
which puts the MPs far much ahead of the toiling 6.3 million workers living
on starvation wages as they are taxed to make the MPs comfortable. Some workers
who went on strike in January and who were demanding that their Ksh 2,400
monthly salaries be increased were met with riot police in the streets as
the new Narc government used force to quell the strike arguing that the workers'
were being unrealistic.
The MP's greed is so intense that they passed their pay hike even before
addressing the Teachers’ pay rise package which has been pending since 1998
and which the Narc government promised to look into once it seized power.
What the salary increment has reconfirmed is that getting to Parliament has
become a way of becoming a millionaire in Kenya. The fact that the motion
was passed without a single opposition is a demonstration that the MPs are
acting in their own class interest and that their being elected to Parliament
is not necessarily to fight against legislations aimed at draining the economy
but to address their immediate economic well-being with or without the support
of the public. Kenyans witnessed helplessly as massive public opposition
to the pay hike was side-stepped by the MPs, some of whom advanced the most
pathetic arguments to justify the move.
"Millionaire
MPs" encourages cronyism, sycophancy and boot licking
The huge amount of money the MPs have awarded themselves, together with the
high speed with which the motion was passed in Parliament was not accidental.
Kenya is a class society and MPs are in a class of their own – the rich class
of wealth grabbers who have access to State resources and whose effective
looting of the economy depends on the craftsmanship of those strategically
placed to loot.
A class of people who are in a position of power and influence tend to act
in their own interest regardless of external circumstances. For this reason,
the fact that the government is begging money from abroad to deliver services
like free Primary education did not matter to the MPs neither did they have
to pay attention to public opinion which was diametrically opposed to the
pay hikes and at a time when the economy is in crisis.
From a Socialist perspective, MPs should earn no more than a living wage
of a skilled worker because since MPs are representatives of the people,
half a million salaries only helps to further alienate them from the people
because of the new privileges the MPs acquire with the new inflated pay package.
The consequence of having millionaire MPs in a situation of mass poverty
and deprivation is that the huge salaries transforms the People's representatives
into paternalistic entities in relation to their constituents, a consequence
which also encourages cronyism, sycophancy and boot licking as desperate
constituents trail MPs for financial hand-outs to sort out problems which,
in reality, should be sorted out by the State through the provision of basic
services such as food, clothing, shelter, education, health care, etc. What
the salary hike promotes is further class differentiation in society with
the gap between the rich millionaire MPs and the millions of poor Kenyans
becoming even more impossible to bridge.
The alternative of a “workers’ wage” for sitting MPs cannot however be addressed
by opportunist Parliamentarians operating within the framework of capitalism
because this option derives its appeal from the socialist concept of
"no privileges" for peoples representatives. A workers’ wage for workers’
representatives is only possible within the framework of a “Workers’ democracy”
which, in turn, cannot be addressed without the option of a Socialist system
of government being accepted as an alternative to the rotten capitalist system.
A key condition is that building socialism in Kenya will not be possible
without workers playing a leading role in the struggle. For workers to enter
into active revolutionary socialist politics, they will have to get organized
through a Workers’ Party and this means that the ideas of how workers can
organize will have to reach Kenyans through all openings available.
Salary increments
amounts to looting and plunder of Kenyan economy
With the huge amounts of money at their disposal, the MPs will increasingly
be seen as “walking solutions” to economic problems of individual constituents,
a view that simply gives the MPs more power and influence over the lives
of their constituents. Instead of MPs being seen as agents of political change
aimed at ending poverty and suffering among the population, they are seen
as sources of income which can help solve petty domestic problems. This culture
of constituent-MP economic dependency was most visible during KANU's 39 years
in power, time when money looted from the State by politicians was subsequently
used to buy influence and acquire psychological control of poor voters. Is
it far fetched to assert that there is no fundamental political change in
Kenya apart from the opening of the democratic space? Does it ring a bell
that newly elected MPs are implementing KANU policies through Parliament
and without a single ammendment?
Just like many other Kenyans, KSDA takes the position that the huge salary
increments of Kenyan MPs was unjustified. We think that the salary increments
amounts to looting and plunder of the Kenyan economy by Parliamentarians
who ought to have been sensitive to the fact that Kenya is currently undergoing
through deep economic crisis that has even forced the government to continue
begging from imperialist institutions. Our position is that instead of increasing
their salaries, the MPs should have moved to decrease their salaries that
were hiked two years ago by the Moi dictatorship as a sign that the new Parliamentarians
are committed to looking for ways of reviving the economy.
The unpopular salary increment is a signal that under capitalism, there is
no limit when it comes to personal greed and accumulation of wealth. The
arguments which politicians like Koigi wa Wamwere, a former political prisoner,
have given to justify the pay hike is evidence that there is a serious ideological
vacuum in Kenyan politics. One would have expected a “champion of the poor”
like Wamwere to be in the front-line in opposing the wage hikes while at
the same time providing ideological direction aimed at collective upliftment
of the living standards of Kenyans through a change of the system even through
revolutionaty means. Instead, Wamwere suggested that MPs need the
pay hike so that they can be in a position to donate more money during
fundraisings in their constituencies. He added that he has been invited to
more than 100 harambees and that he needed money to be able to cope!
A Socialist
position is to advocate for reduction of MPs salaries to that of a skilled
worker
The difference is that a socialist in Parliament could have opposed the lavish
pay hike and mobilized opinion to stop it. The economic crisis that Kenya
currently finds itself in, together with the fact that the government is
becoming more dependent on imperialism for money to provide services dictates
that any extra expenditures by the government which could be avoided needs
to be put on ice. The pay hike is testimony that Kenyans have elected a breed
of wealth grabbers and all talk by MPs about ending looting of the
economy should be treated as empty rhetoric.
In the situation, a clear Socialist position is to advocate for a reduction
of MPs salaries to no more than that of a skilled worker. This is where
Socialists differ with liberals and other right wing forces whose agenda
in Parliament is to get rich and to enjoy the privileges that comes with
election to Parliament and at the expense of the taxpayer. With the pay hike,
there is no question that at the end of their five year term, every MP in
Kenya has the opportunity of becoming a millionaire at the expense of the
poor. Shame on all Kenyan MPs who failed to oppose the unjustified pay hike
even at a time when doing so could have been politically expedient.
We say:
-Reduce MPs salaries to that of a skilled worker
-No privileges for sitting MPs. Privileges widens the gap between the rich
and the poor while it also corrupts!
-Establish a minimum living wage commensurate with the current rate of inflation
for all workers in Kenya.
-Stop using taxpayers’ money to finance the lavish lifestyles of politicians.
-Abolish capitalism in Kenya, a system built on exploitation of the poor,
privileges for the rich and use of Parliament to create millionaire MPs at
the expense of the poor!
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Published by Kenya Socialist Democratic Alliance
(KSDA)
email: harakatips@hotmail.com
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