.jpg)
MPs Salaries Saga: Kenyans Need Moral Education, Not New Constitution
Kenyans have been preoccupied with salaries – the Kenya police getting what some think is a good salary rise (laugh) and members of parliament (MPs) fighting for salary increases. The sulking MPs have refused to go into recess waiting to press for the salary increases to be effected immediately or else they will not approve this year’s government expenditure. And the police are on a go-slow strike protesting against their meager salary increases.
New MP Salaries
The salaries the MPs are asking for stand like this:
Ordinary MP Current Shs 871,000 New Shs1.2 million
Speaker Current Shs 1.5 million New Shs 2.8 million
Prime Minister Current ? New Shs3.2 million
Vice President Current ? New Shs2.7 millon
Justification for the MP salary increase demands is that the inflation rate has gone up. So if their salaries are to me taxed, as is proposed by the taxman and supported by all Kenyans, they must get more money.
Police Salaries Increases
The police force salaries, even where they were increased stand in naked contrast to the MPs salaries. They are as follows (the figures indicate the new entry point -Min-and the new exit point -Max):
Constable Min. Shs 18,340 Max. Shs 35,000
Sergeant Min. Shs 27,840 Max. Shs41, 200
Inspector Min. Shs 29,000 Max. Shs 44,000
Chief Inspector Min. Shs 32,000 Max. Shs48, 200
Superintendent Min. Shs 33,900 Max. Shs 59,640
Let us not forget that the MPs and the police live in the same country, drink the same water and breathe the same air. And let us not forget that the same thing runs through the entire government structures. The top civil servant – Permanent Secretary – earns in millions and the lowest rank civil servant – the office assistant – earns in tens.
Critics have called the MPs greedy, but it is important to notice that their salary increases were recommended by a commission – the Justice Akilano Akiwumi Commission. The commissioners did not care to find out what the other public servants were earning or how they were coping with the same inflation and taxes that the MPs were being shielded against.
Can we correct the mess with the proposed constitution? Obviously we cannot. The actual name of this sad situation is “moral corruption.” And what Kenyans need are lessons on new morality so that they can retrain themselves to “Do unto the others what they would like to be done unto them.” Selfishness, greed, lack of empathy and sympathy are now burnt deep into the Kenyan psych so that fear and shame – big controls of moral behavior – have been deleted from their vocabulary. A thief isn’t ashamed of taking home his loot and telling his kids, “Come let’s eat and drink!” while the man they have just robbed is writhing and dying in pain. In fact, Kenyans may even applaud the thief as a hard working Kenyan!
Join our Moral Rearmament Campaign and contribute a Chapter to our campaign story: When Tajirikaleo was in Charge of Money
No related posts.
