The secrets of high flying MPs
Updated 15 hr(s) 56 min(s) ago By Kenfrey Kiberenge and Alex KiprotichExtravagant lifestyles, the allure of extramarital affairs and the quest to live to public expectations drain most Kenyan parliamentarians’ salaries, leaving them in perpetual financial crises.Beneath the dark suits, flashy lifestyles and fuel guzzlers, most of our parliamentarians are a distressed lot wallowing in financial burdens.Multiple interviews with current and former MPs, their personal assistants and financial analysts reveal why the legislators have often increased their salaries while resisting attempts to tax their allowances. A majority of them now find themselves in awkward positions following Kenya Revenue Authority’s (KRA) firm decision to tax their allowances and backdate the same to September last year. On average, each of the MPs owes the taxman Sh1.9 million in backdated taxes, besides the fact their entire pay will this month be subjected to taxation.Previously, ordinary MP’s tax amounted to about Sh50,000 as only the Sh200,000 basic salary was subjected to taxation.
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| President Kibaki opens a Parliamentary session. [PHOTO:FILE/STANDARD] |
But under the new arrangement, the taxman will retain up to Sh260,000 of the Sh851,000 gross salary, according to calculations by Nithi MP Kareke Mbiuki.Trouble for new parliamentarians begins soon after the swearing in where most find the sudden thrust into money and limelight too tempting to resist the life of affluence.Most newcomers find the Sh15m mortgage offered by the Parliamentary Service Commission too tempting to resist. Beneficiaries end up paying Sh400,000 to service the mortgage.Outside Continental House where their offices are located, car manufacturing companies pitch tent showcasing sleek cars to cash in on the new millionaires. The deal is sweetened by the provision of a Sh3.3 million car loan. "They will give you a car as long as you are an MP," said a PA who asked not to be named.Palatial houses With palatial houses and driving big cars, some of them are lured into exclusive golf and members’ only clubs.Former Kilome MP Kalembe Ndile confirms that he almost fell for a similar ‘trap’ in search of life’s luxuries."Someone wanted to introduce me to a golf club and when I enquired, the golf set cost Sh340,000 and that did not make sense to me. I declined," said Ndile.He also claims that the lure for extramarital affairs has eaten into the salaries of some MPs."I know an MP who has four sidekicks many who insist on being bought a house or rented an apartment in an upmarket area," said Ndile.During holidays, several MPs also prefer to spend in exorbitant hotels and resorts abroad. "Saa hio unasikia mtu anakuuliza ‘Ndile unaenda holiday wapi?’ Mimi naenda Mauritius. Mwingine anaenda Bangkok. The furthest I can take my family is Mombasa because all beaches are similar," added the ex-MP.Some legislators also claim they cannot reside in cheap resorts during holidays.Kisauni MP Hassan Joho confirms that several of his colleagues have zero salaries due to the many commitments."Many took the House mortgage, loans and we have fees to pay thus many of us have zero shillings due to these commitments," he noted.But Joho quickly defends his colleagues against claims of imprudent financial management, saying that a huge chunk of MPs’ pay goes to taking care of the needs of their constituents."When your constituents visit your home in Nairobi their demands are quite high: harambees, weddings and burials, among others," said Joho.In a telephone interview, Mbiuki said he had taken the mortgage and is required to pay Sh400,000 per month.Left in debt"I have planned my finances in such a way that I will finish paying the mortgage in August next year. Now, if they take a further Sh210,000 then it will mean that I have to scale down the money I pay to about Sh150,000. That will mean I will be left in debts," said Mbiuki, protesting KRA’s move. Another MP from Rift Valley said he could not resist the temptation to take the two loans because he needed a house in Nairobi and a vehicle."It is tempting and you cannot resist when it is your first time getting such privileges," said the MP who sought anonymity to avoid being ridiculed.According to the Akiwumi taskforce that reviewed MPs’ salaries, the salary slips of 29 MPs reflected net payments of Sh10,000 and below while another 81 MPs had a net of less than Sh100,000. The report was tabled in Parliament last year in June.But it is not the lure of quick riches that land Kenyan MPs in problems only. In the book The Politics of Betrayal, former Member of Parliament, Joe Khamisi, gives a peek into the weird world of our legislators. The book paints a vivid picture of the dirty lifestyles of Kenyan leaders, which are hidden from the public eye. The revelation of Kenyan MP’s sexual escapades is shocking. The book reveals how on several occasions, the drainage system of Continental House, which houses MPs’ offices, is blocked by used condoms."This is not out of blues but to be honest, it has happened and happens. In fact, you people (the Press) report all the time but because of legal reasons, you can’t name names. It is true," said an MP.Many a times the public is given stories of unnamed MPs flying young ladies to exclusive and expensive places like Zanzibar and Dubai for holiday and shopping."Where do you think the money comes from? It is from our salaries and especially for those who have no other businesses to supplement their earnings," says the legislator.A month ago, a Cabinet minister from Nyanza flew a young woman to an expensive hotel in Zanzibar for sexual escapades but the deal went awry after she declined his advances. The vocal minister abandoned the woman in Zanzibar.An MP from the Meru region has been forced to sell a house he built for his father as one of the austerity measures in order to remain afloat.Kenyan MPs take home a monthly income of Sh851,000 and have always paid Sh53,000 as tax. Rongai MP Luka Kigen says the perception that the MPs earn big money is just an illusion because some actually take nothing home at the end of the month because of commitments."When you get to Parliament, everyone wants to take advantage of the loans which are given at very competitive interest rates and no one is assured of coming back to Parliament," he said.Repaying loans He said most MPs buy houses in Westlands, Runda, Karen and other posh areas they consider befit their status.Kigen says he does not know of any MP who is not repaying a house loan in the current Parliament."When one is elected an MP, the social standing in the society goes high and so the big spending that come with it," he says."Most of us who have school going children ensure that they go to the best private schools where you pay dearly," he says.He however says it is all about planning and financial prudence of an individual. Kenyans have sarcastically appealed to the government to train MPs in prudent financial management skills immediately they are sworn in.But Mars Group Chief Executive Mwalimu Mati has scoffed at the proposal. "That is hilarious but it’s not an option. If they can’t manage their finances, then it means they cannot manage public finances and they can be easily compromised," said Mati. THINK
The Poverty Of Philosophy lyricsby Immortal Technique
Most of my Latino and black people who are struggling to get food, clothes and shelter in the hood are so concerned with that, that philosophising about freedom and socialist democracy is usually unfortunately beyond their rationale. They don't realize that America can't exist without separating them from their identity, because if we had some sense of who we really are, there's no way in hell we'd allow this country to push it's genocidal consensus on our homelands. This ignorance exists, but it can be destroyed.
Nigga talk about change and working within the system to achieve that. The problem with always being a conformist is that when you try to change the system from within, it's not you who changes the system; it's the system that will eventually change you. There is usually nothing wrong with compromise in a situation, but compromising yourself in a situation is another story completely, and I have seen this happen long enough in the few years that I've been alive to know that it's a serious problem. Latino America is a huge colony of countries whose presidents are cowards in the face of economic imperialism. You see, third world countries are rich places, abundant in resources, and many of these countries have the capacity to feed their starving people and the children we always see digging for food in trash on commercials. But plutocracies, in other words a government run by the rich such as this one and traditionally oppressive European states, force the third world into buying overpriced, unnecessary goods while exporting huge portions of their natural resources.
I'm quite sure that people will look upon my attitude and sentiments and look for hypocrisy and hatred in my words. My revolution is born out of love for my people, not hatred for others.
You see, most of Latinos are here because of the great inflation that was caused by American companies in Latin America. Aside from that, many are seeking a life away from the puppet democracies that were funded by the United States; places like El Salvador, Guatemala, Peru, Columbia, Nicaragua, Ecuador and Republica Dominicana, and not just Spanish-speaking countries either, but Haiti and Jamaica as well.
As different as we have been taught to look at each other by colonial society, we are in the same struggle and until we realize that, we'll be fighting for scraps from the table of a system that has kept us subservient instead of being self-determined. And that's why we have no control over when the embargo will stop in Cuba, or when the bombs will stop dropping in Vieques.
But you see, here in America the attitude that is fed to us is that outside of America there live lesser people. "Fuck them, let them fend for themselves." No, Fuck you, they are you. No matter how much you want to dye your hair blonde and put fake eyes in, or follow an anorexic standard of beauty, or no matter how many diamonds you buy from people who exploit your own brutally to get them, no matter what kind of car you drive or what kind of fancy clothes you put on, you will never be them. They're always gonna look at you as nothing but a little monkey. I'd rather be proud of what I am, rather than desperately trying to be something I'm really not, just to fit in. And whether we want to accept it or not, that's what this culture or lack of culture is feeding us.
I want a better life for my family and for my children, but it doesn't have to be at the expense of millions of lives in my homeland. We're given the idea that if we didn't have these people to exploit then America wouldn't be rich enough to let us have these little petty material things in our lives and basic standards of living. No, that's wrong. It's the business giants and the government officials who make all the real money. We have whatever they kick down to us. My enemy is not the average white man, it's not the kid down the block or the kids I see on the street; my enemy is the white man I don't see: the people in the white house, the corporate monopoly owners, fake liberal politicians those are my enemies. The generals of the armies that are mostly conservatives those are the real Mother-Fuckers that I need to bring it to, not the poor, broke country-ass soldier that's too stupid to know shit about the way things are set up.
In fact, I have more in common with most working and middle-class white people than I do with most rich black and Latino people. As much as racism bleeds America, we need to understand that classism is the real issue. Many of us are in the same boat and it's sinking, while these bougie Mother-Fuckers ride on a luxury liner, and as long as we keep fighting over kicking people out of the little boat we're all in, we're gonna miss an opportunity to gain a better standard of living as a whole.
In other words, I don't want to escape the plantation I want to come back, free all my people, hang the Mother-Fucker that kept me there and burn the house to the god damn ground. I want to take over the encomienda and give it back to the people who work the land.
You cannot change the past but you can make the future, and anyone who tells you different is a Fucking lethargic devil. I don't look at a few token Latinos and black people in the public eye as some type of achievement for my people as a whole. Most of those successful individuals are sell-outs and house Negros.
But, I don't consider brothers a sell-out if they move out of the ghetto. Poverty has nothing to do with our people. It's not in our culture to be poor. That's only been the last 500 years of our history; look at the last 2000 years of our existence and what we brought to the world in terms of science, mathematics, agriculture and forms of government. You know the idea of a confederation of provinces where one federal government controls the states? The Europeans who came to this country stole that idea from the Iroquois lead. The idea of impeaching a ruler comes from an Aztec tradition. That's why Montezuma was stoned to death by his own people 'cause he represented the agenda of white Spaniards once he was captured, not the Aztec people who would become Mexicans.
So in conclusion, I'm not gonna vote for anybody just 'cause they black or Latino they have to truly represent the community and represent what's good for all of us proletariat.
Porque sino entonces te mando por el carajo cabron gusano hijo de puta, seramos libre pronto, viva la revolucion, VIVA LA REVOLUCION!
THANK YOU FOR YOUR UNDERSTANDING !
