The Court of Appeal has ruled that the Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC) does not have the mandate to set allowances for Members of Parliament.
In a case emanating from a move to award MPs a Ksh250,000 housing allowance in 2018, the Court noted that the role of setting allowances was to be undertaken by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC).
SRC had challenged the PSC decision in the High Court and won the case, a move that saw the PSC deduct the housing allowance that had already been paid.
However, dissatisfied with the High Court decision, PSC moved to the Court of Appeal. The matter was heard by Justices Gatembu Kairu, Francis Tuiyott and Jessie Lesiit.
“The appellants in their own confession before us admitted that the judgment of the superior court has been fully complied with and all payments made to MPs under the ‘accommodation/facilitation/house allowance’ fully deducted from the MPs’ salaries.
“That action settles the finality of the compromise reached by the parties leaving no room to challenge the issue of house allowance. There is therefore left nothing for us to determine in that regard,” read the statement in part.
Additionally, the Court of Appeal ruled that SRC did not contravene the law by capping the amount to be paid to the MPs for sitting allowance.
PSC had lamented that capping the pay would limit the number of sittings to be held.
“The gazette notice that resulted from the compromise aforestated is itself clear that the SRC has not capped the number of times committees can sit,” read the ruling in part.
“It has capped the maximum allowances members can earn each month as house committee sitting allowance. This means while the number of committee meetings members can attend is not capped, they cannot earn more in sitting allowances than prescribed by the SRC,”
Following the Wednesday ruling, SRC expressed that the move would safeguard its mandate of setting out remuneration for MPs and other state officials and managing the wage bill.
By Nairobileo