By Anthony Mwangi and Mercy Mwai
Over 10 MPs and their parliamentary support staff are in a tight spot after they were ordered to pay back Sh35.8 million they received to attend a women’s conference that has since been cancelled.
The MPs were to attend the 64th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women that was called off because of the deadly coronavirus outbreak.
Their problems started when the Speaker of the National Assembly, Justin Muturi, asked the traveling team to refund the money, which had already been given to them to attend the conference in New York.
“You know how to deal with facilitation that is already in your hands. We need a complete refund of whatever that has landed in your accounts. Simply return the funds,” said Muturi.
According to the Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC) Honoraria rates, each member travelling to the US is given US$1,196 (Sh119,600) a day.
Going by the PSC rates, the 15 members received $17,940 (Sh 1,794,000) for the two weeks stay in New York meaning that the team received Sh25.1 million in total.
The seven staff members as per the PSC rates were paid US$1,110, meaning that each got US$7,770 or Sh770,000.
In the 14 days they were to spend in the US, the staff members would have received Sh10.78 million.
Those we talked to People Daily on Wednesday bemoaned that most of them had spent a huge chunk of the money before travelling.
They are now proposing to be considered for another trip to a “safer” country for the money to be recovered since repaying will be a tall order.
Sadly, none of the members was willing to discuss the matter on record and asked not to be named during the interviews.
The traveling party were left confused as to how to pay back the money after it emerged that most of them had already spent the cash which was wired to their bank accounts immediately they were picked by the respective houses.
