MCAs coast retreat cost taxpayer over Sh60m amid ballooning wage bill

By Roselyne Obala and Geoffrey Mosoku

Kenya: Last week’s two-day conference in Mombasa for Members of County Assemblies (MCAs) could have cost the taxpayers over Sh60 million.

The MCAs and Speakers of the 47 counties retreated to the coastal city to review devolution one year on.

The Standard has reliably learnt that the trip by the 2,247 MCAs and 47 speakers was facilitated by respective county assemblies.

Each member pocketed Sh25,000 in per diem and meal allowances for the two days.

The MCAs national Chairman Joseph Makilap told The Standard that county assemblies facilitated their members to attend the conference.

“Going by the circular from the Former Prime Ministers office that list the cadre of State Offices and their facilitation is various towns, there was a standard cost for all MCAs,” he said.

Each pearson was entitled Sh8,000 per day and Sh4,500 daily for the meals and conference facilities.

He however, explained they were not staying at the luxurious Flamingo Hotel but only used it for meetings.

“According to the circular, Nairobi, Kisumu and Mombasa have a standard cost of Sh8,000 per day for our job group, while other smaller towns pay Sh6,000 or Sh5,000,” explained the Baringo County Majority leader.

 “MCAs were to organise own transport, while those from far areas used air transport.”

Figure vary

The figure may go up, as it’s not inclusive of monies the MCAs received for their transport. It was not easy to calculate this figure as the transport allowance varies from one county to another.  

Some of the far-flung counties like Turkana, Marsabit, Mandera and Wajir MCAs were allowed to use flights to Mombasa.

We could also not establish how much the county assembly speakers were given as per diem and accommodation as their figure differs from those of MCAs.

According to Nyamira County Majority Leader Beauttah Omanga it was unfair to target MCAs over wage bill arguing that their convention is one off meeting unlike MPs who are always attending seminars. .

“MCAs were meeting to compare notes and discuss on ways of moving in the same direction in performing their functions,” Mr Omanga said adding that each county assembly met the cost of travel, accommodation and per diem.