Following the SRC’s decision to eliminate seating allowances in plenary sessions, newly elected MPs intend to commence the process of disbanding it. 

The MPs accused the SRC of exceeding its authority and requested that their employer, the Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC), contest the judgment in court. 

The SRC abolished sitting allowances in a gazette notice released last month, claiming that it will save taxpayers over one billion shillings per year.

To pacify the legislators, the SRC preserved committee sitting allowances and upped MPs’ base pay by Sh134,000 to Sh710,000. 

MPs receive around Sh5,000 for each sitting, and the elimination of allowances for plenary sessions in the National Assembly and Senate is intended to relieve pressure on the public sector salary bill, which is presently Sh930.5 billion per year. 

The elimination of plenary sitting allowances will be implemented when newly elected MPs are sworn in before September 9.

Lawmakers have in the past successfully challenged similar decisions by the salaries team and managed to reinstate perks earned by the previous House.

“We will not sit and watch the SRC take away what we enjoyed in the last Parliament. We will ask the Parliamentary Service Commission to challenge the gazette notice failing which we will embark on a process to disband the SRC,” Tim Wanyonyi, the third-term MP for Westlands, said at the start of a two-day orientation for newly elected lawmakers.

The SRC is a constitutional body that can only be scrapped through an amendment of the Constitution.