20100705
africanews

Kenya's President Mwai Kibaki has called for a crisis cabinet meeting to discuss the latest move by MPs to increase their salary. An endorsement of a proposal by Members of Parliament to double their allowances and increase their salaries has led to a public outcry.

Civil society organization and the media have criticized the approval.

A special cabinet meeting is set for Tuesday this week to address a growing fear that angry parliamentarians might be planning to paralyze government business after Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta declined to table necessary bills that would have made the MPs proposed perks legal. MPs are yet to approve the 2010/11 budget but passed the recommendation in a record 40 minutes.

In a statement, the country’s treasury said the government doesn’t have the money to settle the claims of MPs and instead he opted to reject the call by parliament for him to table the bill.

If approved the perks will make Kenyans MPs among the world best paid politicians.

The pay increase for MPs was contained in the report of a tribunal that was to look into the remuneration for MPs. It will see of MPs salaries will increase to Kshs 1.2million up from shs871, 000.