Uhuru Kenyatta calls on Kenyan MPs to accept pay cut They raised their pay to an average of 851,000 Kenyan shillings (£6,600) a month, compared with 532,000 set by the salary team. Lawmakers argue that they need high wages because constituents expect them to provide charitable support. Some also say that lawmakers could be vulnerable to bribes in parliamentary votes if their salaries were too low. The salary increase could trigger wage pressure from representatives in the country's newly-demarcated counties, as well as teachers, police, and doctors, economists say. The parliamentary vote angered the public and civic rights groups which said they would challenge it in court. Mr Kenyatta, 51, son of the nation's founding president, is keen to trim the public sector wage bill which now stands at 50 per cent of annual government tax revenue. His coalition has promised to deliver free maternity care, laptops to primary schoolchildren, better roads and a million new jobs a year in a country of 40 million people where unemployment runs at 40 per cent.