Call for pay cuts in public service

Kenyans want all high earning civil servants and holders of elective posts to take a pay cut to help slash the ballooning wage bill.

Across all the 47 counties, the public also said that allowances should be scrapped and all workers paid a monthly salary.

Findings from a recent research conducted by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) have revealed that most Kenyans want all wages to be rationalised to achieve uniformity in pay schemes.

This follows a report by the Kenya Institute of Public Policy and Research Association (Kippra) that most people are shunning the private sector for public service jobs because of many allowances that come with working for the government.

“The government has over the last ten years become an employer of choice,” said SRC chairperson Sarah Serem while releasing the findings of the research yesterday in Nairobi.

Mrs Serem noted that instead of the government being a service provider, it has become an employment bureau, and the situation has been worsened by decreased productivity.

“It’s not going to be business as usual as we seek to develop a policy on remuneration and benefits for the public service that will be anchored on job evaluation. Productivity in government is less than 30 per cent” she said.

NUMEROUS ALLOWANCES

The commission started the research in October last year culminating in a national wage bill dialogue that brought together all the private and public sector stakeholders last month.

According to the findings, Kenyans raised concerns about the huge wage disparities among civil servants doing the same work.

Currently civil servants earn 16 different allowances, majority being those in the highest job cadres.

The allowances include commuter, housing, medical, transport, entertainment and uniform.

Within the public service structure, those in job group V, the highest cadre, take home Sh889,912 in allowances, while those in Job group B get Sh16,423 in total allowances.

Some officials are also entitled to a Sh99,188 monthly house allowance. On top of that, they also enjoy Sh107,143 which is labelled as extraneous allowance.

The public called for an immediate streamlining of the civil service, with urgent calls to slash politicians’ pay.

“This is what Kenyans said. They want a paradigm shift,” noted Nicodemus Odongo, an SRC commissioner.

However, some MPs are already opposed to the calls, dismissing them as insensitive and lacking in information.

Kimilili MP Suleiman Murunga said  elected officials have many responsibilities that in fact require them to earn even more.

“Elected leaders have a lot on their plate, and whatever salaries they earn is indeed nothing,” said Mr Murunga.

The Kimilili legislator further said that MPs only earn Sh200,000 which the public should be educated about.

“The SRC have a lot of work to do in educating the public that we earn peanuts,” he noted.

Seme MP James Nyikal said that they lead a lifestyle that warrants them to earn a lot of money, dismissing the claims that MPs salaries should be cut.

“We are very few as elected leaders and instead of such calls, the SRC should actually seek to reduce the high number of civil servants who are doing duplicated roles,” he said.

However, Kipipiri MP Samuel Gichigi tempered his sentiments with decorum when called on his colleagues to take cognizance of the situation in the country and adopt new policies that would help manage the increasing wage bill.

“It’s going to be a tough choice but then the law must be followed to look at these recommendations and develop laws that will grant the SRC power to implement some of the recommendations put forth by Kenyans,”