Kenya’s Members of Parliament have quietly awarded themselves a hefty salary increase, doing so in complete secrecy and without any public participation, in a move that has sparked widespread anger among Kenyans already struggling under one of the most punishing economic environments the country has seen in years.
According to a document seen by our team, the MPs increased their monthly salaries by Sh40,550, bringing each MP’s total monthly earnings to Sh892,100 before deductions. On top of that, an additional Sh32,975 has been added to their monthly Constituency Development Fund(CDF) office allowances, meaning each MP’s CDF office will now receive Sh826,250 every month.
The salary increase was approved in March this year and was signed off by National Assembly Clerk Samuel Njoroge, with the entire process carried out away from public scrutiny and without any form of public participation or stakeholder consultation.
The timing of the increase is nothing short of tone deaf. Kenya is currently in the grip of a severe economic crisis, with citizens drowning under punishing taxation, soaring fuel prices, a runaway cost of living and the closure of countless businesses that can no longer survive the hostile economic environment created by the very lawmakers who just gave themselves a raise. Ordinary Kenyans are cutting meals, skipping hospital visits and watching their savings disappear, while their elected representatives were quietly adding thousands of shillings to already bloated pay packages.
The increase also comes exactly one year before the 2027 general election, at which point estimates suggest that more than 60 percent of sitting MPs face being shown the door by frustrated constituents fed up with underdevelopment, corruption and the chronic mismanagement of public resources including CDF funds.
For MPs who are already on borrowed political time, voting themselves a secret pay rise is either an act of extraordinary arrogance or the behaviour of people who have completely given up pretending to care about the citizens they were elected to serve.
Here is the document showing the hefty salary increase MPs awarded themselves in the middle of Kenya’s cost of living crisis.
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