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{
"id": 1442862,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1442862/?format=api",
"text_counter": 58,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Cheruiyot",
"speaker_title": "The Senate Majority Leader",
"speaker": {
"id": 13165,
"legal_name": "Aaron Kipkirui Cheruiyot",
"slug": "aaron-cheruiyot"
},
"content": "If it means taking a pay cut as Members of Parliament (MPs), good people, we do not have an option. Even though we have been told that it is not possible, that MPs will never do it. We have no option. I saw the yearly increment that is now being discussed being misreported in sections of the media that we will now earn more. The SRC continues to be silent about it, but we must make a resolution to say that we also reject that one in light of the financial situation. As it is, even if the high earners were to take a shave on their salary, it will not be enough. I do not have the statistics, but some of these constitutional commissions have failed us. I do not know the percentage of Kenyans that earn above Kshs100,000 and Kshs150,000, but I am certain they are the slim minority of less than 10 per cent. Ninety per cent of our public officers earn Kshs100,000 and below. Mr. Speaker, Sir, let us make whatever savings we can make there. Sen. Omogeni is outside, but he knows that this featured prominently in our National Dialogue Committee (NADCO) talk. The Report that we tabled here, which we unfortunately have not done with speed, captured all the wastages that are in the public expenditure space and what we need to do as a country. This is covered from page 546 to page 600. It is the most obvious thing that people do when things are tight. Young people are telling us that when you have a job with Safaricom, you can live in Langata. However, the day you lose it, you move downwards to either South B or Umoja, until things get better. That is what we are not doing as a leadership. We know for a fact that when things were better, we, as MPs, could all fly Business Class. If you read the recommendation from NADCO, we have said that you must surely not fly Business Class as a public official on any flight that is less than three to four hours. You cannot even sleep within those hours. There are so many things, including recurrent expenditure and wastages in institutions, even Parliament. I saw our staff criticise us saying this or the other, but this must also come to them. I have served in the Staff Welfare Committee. Therefore, I know a thing or two about expenditure in this institution. You will hardly get anybody in Parliament on a Friday. A report that happened in Parliament cannot be considered in Parliament, but in Naivasha or Mombasa. It is the case in all our public institutions and we must lead by example. Before we exit out of this Motion today, we must give a blow-by-blow detail of what happened and why people cannot think in public offices on Fridays, but must be somewhere in Naivasha, Kisumu or elsewhere. I do not think that there is any correlation between better consideration of a tender document, or evaluation exercise that comes when you leave Nairobi. Mr. Speaker, Sir, these are extraordinary times and I must appreciate that there has been guidance. We are being reminded now that the Finance Bill has been sent back"
}