Machakos Governor Alfred Mutua on Tuesday said he is ready to take a pay cut and urged MPs to drop their quest for more allowances.
The Maendeleo Chap Chap leader warned that increasing salaries of leaders at this point would burden Kenyans with higher taxes and push them deeper into poverty.
He instead urged MPs to allow the economy to grow so that millions of poor Kenyans are not impoverished further.
“The quest for salaries increment by MPs is ill-timed because our economy is not doing well. Let us first grow the economy because as it is, I believe public servants are overpaid in Kenya,” the county chief said.
Mutua said though all Kenyan workers deserve a pay hike, it should match the growth of the economy.
“I'm willing to get my salary reduced to match the economy. We do not want to continue being a country of a handful of millionaires and millions of very poor Kenyans," the governor said in his Machakos office.
Mutua said the current state of the country's economy does not have room for higher salaries for public servants.
The governor said it is immoral for a country rocked with massive unemployment and high levels of poverty to subject its citizens to more taxation to finance salaries of leaders and public servants.
“Leaders take home too much, yet there are high levels of unemployment and low circulation of money. Kenyans are feeling overburdened by heavy taxation,” he said.
Mutua’s call comes at a time when the Parliamentary Service Commission has increased the salary budget for the National Assembly to Sh5.6 billion in the next fiscal year up from Sh5.4 billion in the year ending June 2019.
In this, each MP will earn Sh1.33 million per month, which translates to 25 times higher than average earnings for Kenyans.
