Kenyan MPs told to refund allowances for cancelled trip

Kenya's parliamentary speaker has asked 15 MPs, who were due to travel to a UN conference, to refund allowances given to them as their trip to New York has been canceled because of the coronavirus outbreak.

Member states had been advised to be represented at the Commission on the Status of Women next week by their permanent missions based in the US, the speaker said.

The annual two-week event to promote gender equality, which is usually attended by thousands of people from around the world, has also been scaled down to one day.

But speaker Justin Muturi said the money for the 11-day trip had already been credited to the accounts of the legislators, the Standard newspaper reported.

Each attendee had been allocated 1.3m Kenyan shillings ($12,000; £9,000), according to Star newspaper.