Soy MP Caleb Kositany has written a letter to National Assembly speaker Justin Muturi in which he states that he would like to introduce a bill which will amend the constitution to abolish the senate.
The legislator also wants positions of Nominated MPs in National and County assemblies to be abolished. According to Kositany, the country loses in excess of Ksh 3 billion annually which constitutes a heavy burden on the tax payer.
‘The objective of the bill is to reduce the overall cost of representation of the public, reduce the public wage bill and to promote the prudent use of public funds.’ Reads part of the letter.
Soy MP Caleb Kositany plans to introduce a bill to amend the Constitution to abolish Senate, scrap nominated MP and MCA posts to tame Kenya’s huge wage bill. #EconomyReviewKe #PunguzaMizigo pic.twitter.com/SBJxDdIH8g
— Real Mukami Wa Embu ?? (@MukamiWaEmbu) September 19, 2018
The bill comes at a time when there’s a public uproar over the soaring cost of living with Kenyans feeling betrayed by President Uhuru Kenyatta’s move to impose an 8% tax on Petroleum products.
While addressing the nation last week, President Kenyatta revealed that while the 2010 constitution brought with it enjoyment of new rights for Kenyans, the rights are also very expensive.
With it, we have seen a substantial increase in political and bureaucratic representation at every level: we now have two houses of Parliament; the National Assembly has grown from 290 to 349 members; and our new Senate has 67 elected and nominated members.
— Uhuru Kenyatta (@UKenyatta) September 14, 2018
As you can see, the enjoyment of our new rights is expensive, unprecedentedly so. We are very proud of the speed with which we have implemented the new constitution, and devolved government to the people.
— Uhuru Kenyatta (@UKenyatta) September 14, 2018
Kenyans are still waiting to see how Speaker Muturi will respond to the letter.