Maendeleo Chap Chap party leader, Alfred Mutua has declared that he is ready to take a pay cut and challenged members of parliament to drop their quest for pay hike.
The Governor was speaking at his office in Machakos town after being installed county scouts patron.
Mutua warned that increasing salaries of leaders at this point would burden Kenyans with higher taxes and push them deeper in poverty.
Instead, Dr Mutua urged MPs to first allow the economy to grow so that millions of poor Kenyans are not impoverished by massive taxation.
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He said despite the fact that all Kenyan workers deserve pay hike, it was prudent to ensure it is matched with the growth of the economy.
“I am willing myself 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,” said Dr Mutua who is also the Machakos governor.
Mutua said the current state of Kenya’s economy does not have room for increasing salaries of public servants.
“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 over paid in Kenya,” he said.
Mutua said it was immoral for a country rocked with massive unemployment and high levels of poverty to subject its citizens to more taxation in order to finance salaries of leaders and public servants.
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“We as leaders take home too much and 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 5.4 billion in the year ending June 2019.
This will see each MP earn a staggering Sh1.33 million per month which translates to 25 times higher than average earnings for Kenyans.
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