Members of Parliament and senators will go on Easter holiday without their March 2023 salaries as pay delays rock government.
Six aggrieved MPs, who separately spoke to The Standard in confidence, said the delay was unprecedented.
Usually, the lawmakers receive their salaries between 26th and 30th of every month, The Standard was reliably informed.
This time around, the pay was yet to hit their accounts as of Thursday, April 6. This poses a financial setback for many lawmakers as the next possible date for them to get their March salaries will be on Tuesday, April 11 due to the Good Friday and Easter Monday holidays.
The MPs, who The Standard spoke to, said the National Treasury had cited lack of enough funds in its coffers for the delay.
"We have reached out to our members who are in the Parliamentary Service Commission to push for the pay to be released before we go on Easter holiday," said a senior member of the Minority side in the National Assembly.
The Standard reached nine MPs and senators from both Kenya Kwanza and Azimio who confirmed that they were yet to receive their March remuneration.
On Wednesday, April 5, a senator told National Treasury Cabinet Secretary (CS) Prof. Njuguna Ndung'u, who was appearing before the Finance and Budget Committee, that he (senator) "falls sick" when his salary delays for a few days.
The Standard reached National Treasury Principal Secretary Dr. Chris Kiptoo for a comment in regard to the delayed legislators' payment, but our phone calls to him went unanswered.
Recurrent expenditure, which largely includes civil servants' wages, usually gobbles up a significant amount of the revenue collected by the government monthly.
For instance, the Government of Kenya collected Sh1.83 trillion between July 1, 2022 and February 28, 2023. Out of this, Sh727 billion (40 per cent) was used on recurrent expenditure and Sh694 billion (38 per cent) on public debt.
