Kenya Counties are racing against time to construct residences for governors, their deputies and speakers of the county assemblies ahead of the scrapping of monthly housing benefits for the three officers in June next year.
The Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) said Homa Bay and Kajiado had built residences for their governor and deputy governor by August last year. Kilifi had delivered the governor’s house while Isiolo built a house for its deputy governor.
The SRC in 2015 directed the counties to build the houses to save the devolved units Sh13.26 million spent on monthly rent for three top county officials.
Governors, their deputies and speakers are each entitled up to Sh200,000 in monthly allowances.
“The commission reiterates that the June 30, 2022 deadline for leasing of houses still applies. Counties are, therefore, reminded to hasten [the] construction of the houses by allocating funds,” says the SRC in a circular to county secretaries and assembly clerks.
The circular was also copied to the Treasury PS Julius Muia, Council of Governors, Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakang’o and Commission of Revenue Allocation chair Jane Kiringai.
The Treasury has in the past said taxpayers spend Sh5 million in monthly rent for the governors, Sh4.51 million for their deputies and Sh3.75 million for the speakers, translating to Sh159.12 million per year.
Under the 2017 SRC guidelines, the Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu governors get Sh200,000 every month as house allowances while their counterparts in the other counties get Sh100,000.
Deputy governors in Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu get Sh185,000 while the rest get Sh90,000. Speakers in Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu get Sh150,000 in monthly rent allowances while their counterparts in the other counties get Sh75,000, Business daily reports.
