Taxpayers may soon have to buy laptops for MPs to participate in virtual meetings.
Among the many things we already pay for MPs they now want to spend KSh 105 million to purchase laptops for 350 MPs and of course there’s a high chance that they won’t need anything less than an Apple MacBook Pro.
The new laptops are meant to help the MPs brainstorm on ways to beat COVID and the laptops, we guess will help them come up with a super plan.
How much will it all cost?
While Kenyans are still trying to wrap their brains and budgets around the new taxes the proposal from the MPs will cost KSh 105 million but this doesn’t include the 68 senators which means it’ll be higher.
The parliamentary Broadcasting and Library Committee in report tabled in Parliament last Thursday said:
“The committee recommends that the National Assembly should consider facilitating members of the National Assembly with laptops for the conduct of virtual meetings,”
Currently, the MPs use iPads for virtual meetings but that’s not sufficient for them despite the fact that they have very good salaries and allowances.
In case you didn’t know Kenyan MPs are one of the best-paid lawmakers in the world the sudden interest in meeting and brainstorming could be because they haven’t been earning their sitting allowances since COVID-19 paused their meetings. Other allowances that affected their personal budgets are the ones they earned from local and foreign travel.
According to Business Daily this is what the MPs take home every month.
- KES 5,000 per committee sitting
- Domestic subsistence KES 19,000
- house allowance KES 250,000
- medical KES 10 million
- KES 5 million car grant
- A KES 20 million mortgage
- Also KES 7 million car loan
While the idea of the MPs wanting to have laptops so they could meet while following the Ministry of Health protocols, one would wonder how they’ve been working without laptops in the first place. On the other hand with such great allowances and salaries, it’s safe to say that they shouldn’t dive into our taxes because their allowances alone could easily buy ten laptops per person.