Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki has vetoed a $110,000 sendoff bonus that lawmakers had voted for themselves after protests at the move, a statement late Tuesday said.

Kibaki "objected to the amendment on the grounds that it was first unconstitutional, and secondly untenable in the prevailing economic circumstances in the country," a presidential statement read.

The proposed pay off -- at a cost to the country of $24.7 million -- came after Kenya's parliament dismissed the majority of wage demands of striking public sector workers, including doctors and teachers.

"Coming shortly after the increment of salaries for teachers and doctors, the severance pay for parliamentarians would lead to an unsustainable wage bill, at a time when the country requires massive resources," the statement added.

On Tuesday, around 100 demonstrators marched in the Kenyan capital waving placards with messages such as "MPs are thieves" and "greedy hyenas".

A worker earning the national minimum wage would have to work for 61 years in order to earn the amount the MPs had voted to pay themselves.

Kenyan lawmakers are already some of the best paid on the continent, with a tax-free monthly salary of some $13,000.

Legislators introduced an amendment Thursday that would have seen them paid a total of 2.1 billion shillings ($24.7 million, 19 million euros) in bonuses.

Kenya is due to hold in March 2013 the first general election since deadly post-poll violence four and half years ago.

Kenya's government was propped up by some $270 million in foreign aid in 2010-2011, according to official figures, and faces a $1.6 billion deficit in the year ahead.