Outspoken legislator Millie Odhiambo is now calling for the
disbandment of the Salaries and Remuneration Commission.
The Mbita lawmaker also declared, in an exclusive interview
on NTV’s political show Sidebar on Wednesday night, that she is comfortable to
be referred to as “greedy” if the greed will help prosper the people she
represents in the National Assembly.
Ms Odhiambo is one of the few legislators who have been
vocal about the proposed salary reductions and implemented by the SRC which is
headed by Sarah Serem.
In justifying her need for a pay raise, Ms Odhiambo argued
that she requires about Sh1 million a month in order to serve her constituents,
adding that about Sh200,000 of that amount is channeled towards “contributing
for funerals”.
The salary commission recently reduced legislators’
salaries from Sh710,000 to Sh620,250 and scrapped several allowances effective
at the start of the 12th Parliament.
President Uhuru Kenyatta recently swore that he would not
sign any Bill seeking to increase MPs’ salaries.
Ms Odhiambo, meanwhile, argued that Serem and her colleagues
at the SRC, who earn “twice as much as I do”, should now go home considering
they “have finished their job of deciding how much civil servants should earn”.
