Taxpayers have been illegally paying Sh104 million each month to Members of Parliament for 26 months.
This is after the High Court last year found out that legislators were getting an additional of Sh250,000 each for house allowance which was authorised by the Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC).
The MPs illegally allocated themselves Sh2.7 billion house allowance and ordered the PSC to recover the money in one year.
In a bid to suspend the High Court’s order directing National Assembly clerks and the Senate to deduct the payments in full from MPs’ salaries, the legislator moved to Court of Appeal.
They wanted the Court of Appeal to suspend recovery of the money and allow them to continue receiving the allowances pending the appeal is heard and determined.
However, the court declined the request stating that the lawmakers did not convince the court that they would suffer if salary cuts were effected
“… We fail to see how the appeal will be rendered nugatory if stay orders are not granted,” ruled the three judge bench Justices Wanjiru Karanja, Jamilla Mohammed and Gatembu Kairu.
High Court Judges Pauline Nyamweya, Weldon Korir and John Mativo found that PSC had no powers to allocate Sh250,000 monthly to each MP and backdate it to 2018 without the authority of the SRC.
The judges said that the only financial functions allocated to the PSC by thhe constitution are budgetary, hence SRC had acted within its mandate by directing clerks not to pay the said allowance.
“Even if PSC had the authority to set a housing benefit for the MPs, that decision could not legally benefit the current Parliament. The membership of the PSC comprises sitting MPs. The effect of the decision is to award benefits to themselves during their term thereby the effect, spirit and purpose of Article 116 (3),” the court ruled.
However, SRC opposed the application arguing that MPs are public officers and therefore it has a say on what they take home as salaries.
For 26 months, each MP had received Sh6.5 million.