President Ruto to address MPs amid pay row
President William Ruto addressing a Kenya Kwanza elected leaders' meeting in Naivasha.
What you need to know:
- President William Ruto will on Thursday next week officially address the first joint sitting of the two Houses of Parliament amidst concerns by the lawmakers regarding their welfare.
- President Ruto will face MPs who are still disappointed with the move by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) to scrap their plenary sitting allowance.
- The lawmakers on Wednesday in a chaotic meeting shouted down SRC chairperson Lyn Mengich as they insisted that the plenary allowance must be reinstated.
President William Ruto will on Thursday next week officially address the first joint sitting of the two Houses of Parliament amidst concerns by the lawmakers regarding their welfare.
In a notice to the 416 lawmakers from the National Assembly and the Senate, speaker Moses Wetang’ula and his counterpart Amason Kingi say the address by President Ruto is in line with Article 132 (1) of the constitution which requires the Head of State to address the opening of each newly elected Parliament.
“Following a notification of the President, the speakers of the National Assembly and the Senate have scheduled a joint sitting of the Houses of Parliament to take place on Thursday commencing at 2:30 pm for the purposes of opening the 13th parliament,” reads the notice signed by both Mr Wetang’ula and Kingi.
The joint sitting will be held at the National Assembly as has been the tradition. The 13th Parliament was sworn in on September 8 following the August 9 General Election.
The official opening of the Houses sets the stage for both to start executing their legislative mandate.
Both Azimio la Umoja coalition and Kenya Kwanza have already started placing their members into various House committees, a process which is expected to be concluded next week.
The two coalitions are embroiled in a supremacy battle regarding who commands the majority of members in the National Assembly. Speaker Wetang’ula is expected to rule on the subject in the subsequent sitting after the address by the president.
President Ruto will face MPs who are still disappointed with the move by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) to scrap their plenary sitting allowance.
The lawmakers on Wednesday in a chaotic meeting shouted down SRC chairperson Lyn Mengich as they insisted that the plenary allowance must be reinstated. Ms Mengich, however, stood firm that the allowance was factored into the lawmakers’ consolidated pay of Sh710, 000, but to quell tempers promised to sit down with the Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC) to iron out some of the demands by MPs.
Sources within Parliament, however, told the Saturday Nation that the commission is likely to take up the matter with the President
