Sitting allowances are legalised looting of the public purse

By Makau Mutua

I have rarely agreed on anything with eccentric gadfly Miguna Miguna. But the man with the same name twice, the self-declared whistleblower, has his moments of sanity.

Last week, he came out of hibernation to declare on Jeff Koinange Live, the popular KTN programme, that sitting allowances to members of various constitutional commissions, were unethical.

UN Special Rapporteur Maina Kiai was the first to blow the whistle on this immoral practice. Methinks it’s time Kenyans raised the alarm over a practice that can only be described as “legalised larceny”. Just because the law – drafted by the same larcenous elites – provides for sitting allowances doesn’t pass the laugh test, or make what amounts to the “looting” of the public purse acceptable.

The matter of sitting allowances has been brought into sharp relief over the woes in the Judiciary, and the messy divorce of former Chief Registrar of the Judicary (CRJ) Gladys Shollei from the Judicial Service Commission (JSC).

Members of the JSC – who include Chief Justice Willy Mutunga, its head, are sitting judges, Attorney General Githu Muigai, the CRJ, a chief magistrate, and several wealthy and prominent lawyers and personalities.

Everyone on the JSC literally and figuratively sits atop Kenyan society.  They are the crème de la crème of society. Which begs the question – why would such men and women of distinction and treasure pillage public coffers?

This is what I ask myself – what part of “public service” don’t they get?  Don’t they see the irony?

I don’t want to pick on the JSC, but I have no choice but to make it my whipping boy because it governs the Judiciary.

In case you forgot, an ethical and independent Judiciary is the sine qua non of a free and democratic society.  Extinguish these virtues and Kenya becomes Idi Amin’s Uganda. It’s that simple – a society without a moral and ethical Judiciary is a rotten dictatorship.

I would even argue this – of the three arms, the Judiciary may not be the first among equals, but it’s what stands between a tyrannical state and the citizen. No country can be free with a kleptocratic legal profession and Judiciary.

So, why is the JSC filled with rent-seekers? I have no doubt CJ Mutunga is Kenya’s “legal Moses”. He has taken a beating in the court of public opinion in the recent past, but he remains the pivotal steward of reforms in the Judiciary.

But that simply won’t happen if the JSC, which he superintends, is ethically challenged. How can a rotten head think for a healthy body?

This is my take – we might as well kiss judicial reforms goodbye if the JSC becomes a cabal of thieving maggots.

Kenyans have little, or no faith in their government. That’s why they had put all their eggs in CJ Mutunga’s basket. Is he going to lead the JSC “out of Jericho” – the ruins of the corrupt judiciary of yesteryear?

CJ Mutunga and the JSC can start to reclaim the public by first forsaking sitting allowances. These are the facts. Each commissioner on the JSC, including CJ Mutunga and departed CRJ Shollei, were raking in 80,000 shillings per sitting.

That’s roughly 1000 US dollars in a country with a per capita income of 976 US dollars. Reports indicate that the JSC has sat over 500 times – an average of 14 times a month.

You do the math on how much each commissioner has pocketed. This is simply indefensible. The JSC shouldn’t be a gravy train for the most powerful men and women in society. It would be an incredible scandal in the United States.

Several weeks ago, I watched in horror as JSC Commissioner – and fabulously wealthy lawyer Ahmednasir Abdullahi – said on Jeff Koinange Live with a straight face that JSC members deserved to be paid.

What Mr Abdullahi and his fellow commissioners don’t get is wealthy people like himself should do pro bono work, or free public service, especially in a poor country like Kenya.

Public commissions aren’t places for those with obscene piles of money to grab more. Mr Abdullahi reminded Mr Koinange that he isn’t a salaried public employee, and therefore had to be paid for his service.

Really? I sit on many boards of public organisations and NGOs whom I’ve never asked for a penny in sitting allowances.

It’s particularly egregious that salaried public employees on the JSC – including CJ Mutunga, the CRJ, and judges – are paid sitting allowances.

Mr Miguna correctly pointed out these judicial officials, most of whom make millions in salary, are paid “sitting allowances” to do a job that they are already paid to do.

The equivalent would be paying office workers a sitting allowance every time they attend a routine staff meeting.  That’s why CJ Mutunga and the JSC must forswear sitting allowances pronto, and not take a penny more beyond their official salaries.