Kenya's leader gets huge pay rise

Mr Kibaki came to power promising to fight poverty

Kenya's parliament has voted to increase the salary of President Mwai Kibaki by two-thirds.

MPs approved a government motion to raise his basic pay and allowances from $26,000 a month to more than $44,000.

Opposition members objected to the rise, saying 60% of Kenya's population of 32m live on only $1 a day.

But Finance Minister Amos Kimunya said the country should give "the institution of the presidency the respect and dignity it deserves".

There are civil servants who earn peanuts Opposition MP William Ruto

Mr Kibaki came to power in 2002 promising to end decades of corruption and improve the living standards of Kenyans.

Opposing the hike, Kanu MP William Ruto said the salaries for civil servants needed an increase more urgently.

"There are civil servants who earn peanuts and we should also review their salaries," he said.

Several groups of workers, such as university lecturers have held strikes, complaining of low pay.

The MP claimed that some of them earned as little as 4,000 Kenyan shillings ($57) a month, Kenya's Daily Nation newspaper reports.

"The president cannot die of hunger if his salary is not increased," another veteran MP Raila Odinga added during the debate.

Over the past four years, Mr Kibaki's administration has been hit by a multi-million dollar corruption scandal which has damaged the president's credibility with Western donors.

Some donors have estimated that up to $1bn had been lost to graft between 2002 and 2005.