Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

top

Kenya

I said no car grants for MCAs – Serem

Sarah Serem on Wednesday maintained that Members of County Assemblies (MCAs) would not get car grants. Photo/ FILE

Sarah Serem on Wednesday maintained that Members of County Assemblies (MCAs) would not get car grants. Photo/ FILE

NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 16 – The Chairperson of the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) Sarah Serem on Wednesday maintained that Members of County Assemblies (MCAs) would not get car grants.

This is despite the Leader of the Majority in the National Assembly Aden Duale stating in Parliament that the SRC had little choice in the matter as Article 10 of the Constitution guaranteed equality between MCAs and Members of Parliament who are entitled to car grants.

READ: You must give MCAs car grants, Duale tells Serem.

But Serem maintained that the MCAs would have to be content with the Sh2 million car loan they are entitled to and which they are required to pay back at a three percent interest rate within their five-year term in office.

“It looks like a grant doesn’t it? Three percent, where do you get three percent? So our position remains absolutely the same. No car grants for MCAs,” she told Capital FM News.

On April 1 before the National Assembly began its debate on President Uhuru Kenyatta’s State of the Nation address, Duale told the House: “From today, I will fight to ensure that MCAs get a car grant. I want to tell Sarah Serem that under Article 10 of the Constitution, she cannot give a car grant to MPs and deny the MCAs a grant. She must give it, she has no choice.”

Article 10 (2) (b) of the Constitution states that, “the national values and principles of governance include human dignity, equity, social justice, inclusiveness, equality, human rights, non-discrimination and protection of the marginalised.”

An equality President Kenyatta said must prevail when he told MCAs on a retreat in Mombasa that if MPs were entitled to car grants, so should they. READ: MCAs entitled to car grants like MPs – Uhuru

“As the white man says, what is good for the goose is good for the gander. If it’s a car loan, let it be a car loan for everybody. If it is a grant, it must be a grant for everybody. Justice is justice,” he stated.

But even as he said so he asked the MCAs to keep their demands reasonable as his government fights to deflate the public wage bill.

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

“If it were up to me we’d all be paid the same. If it’s Sh100,000, it’s 100,000 for the Chief Justice, Uhuru and the Governor. Let us not fight over money. Let us fight to deliver services to the people,” he said.

Less than six months ago the SRC acceded to the MCAs demands for higher sitting and mileage allowances as well as Sh3 million in mortgage.

About The Author

Comments
Advertisement

More on Capital News