Cut salaries for elected leaders by half: Clerics

Religious leaders want the size of government slashed by half and the salaries of elected leaders slashed by 40 per cent to reduce the rising public wage bill.

In a raft of drastic proposals aimed at reducing government spending on salaries, the leaders meeting under the auspices of the Ufungamano Joint Forum of Religious Organisations also want the number of constituencies reduced to 150, county governments to 16, Senators to 32 and Members of the County Assemblies to 1,050.

They said doing this would free up money for development.

Addressing a press conference in Nairobi on Thursday, the leaders said the current wage bill is unsustainable.

They appealed to the Salaries and Remuneration Commission to use its constitutional mandate to reduce the salaries of State officers and top civil servants.

They said they had talked with the salaries team over the proposals and received a positive response.

The religious leaders from different persuasions also announced that they were engaging lawyers to prepare amendments to the Constitution and certain laws to effect the proposals.

“The salaries commission should serve the country by doing the following: Reduce the remunerations of State officers including MPs, Senators, MCAs and other senior public servants by at least 40 per cent. The President and the Deputy President led the way when they offered a salary cut of 20 per cent - which should now be enhanced to 40 per cent,” the leaders said in a statement read by Dr Willy Mutiso of the Baptist Church.

Other leaders present at the press conference included the Rev Mukundi Cheche (Presbyterian Church of East Africa), Stephen Kanyaru and Samuel Abade (Methodist Church), Zablon Malenge (Friends Church), Willie Ngugi (Seventh Day Adventist) and Latif Shaban (Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims).

They proposed that the current 47 county governments be reduced to sixteen by splitting the former eight provinces into two counties each with the exception of Rift Valley which should be split into three. Nairobi should also be retained as a county.

“We propose that senators be elected in the new and enlarged counties and each county elects one man and one woman senator similar to the US. This will reduce the Senate to 32 senators down from the current 67 and provide a good solution for the gender balance,” they said.

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To achieve gender balance in the National Assembly, the forum proposed that 75 women be nominated from those who contested the preceding election but finished as the best losers.

The issue of gender balance in Parliament has been a thorny one, with MPs earlier this month rejecting a Bill that would have increased their number to meet the gender requirement.

The religious leaders also proposed that the number of wards should be reduced to 750 from the current 1,450 and that 300 women be nominated to county assemblies from those who contested and emerged as best losers.

This, they said, would address the one-third gender rule.

The leaders further want the various laws creating constitutional commissions amended to provide that commissioners to such bodies work on a part time basis and only be paid sitting allowances rather than being retained on salaries.

They said the recent amendment of the anti-corruption commission, which has made the five commissioners part time, is a good example.

They said the Ufungamano group was pleased to have been involved in the effort that led to the review of the law.

The clerics also acknowledged that some of the proposals — such as the reduction in the number of county governments and constituencies — would require a referendum to change the Constitution but said they were ready to mobilise one million signatures to achieve their goal.

“It will only take us one Sunday to mobilise one million signatures to change the Constitution,” Rev Mukundi Cheche of PCEA said.

The clerics warned that Kenya faced economic collapse if it fails to drastically cut the size of government and the salaries paid to State officers and senior public servants.

“Our country does not have the capacity to meet the cost of the rising debts. The alternative of failing to deal with the debt problem now will result in much bigger economic catastrophe and all Kenyans will suffer from the impact as was experienced in Greece,” they warned.