Magistrates urge SRC to review their salaries upwards

Magistrates want the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) to review their pay, saying they do more work than members of county assemblies (MCAs), who even have lower academic qualifications, yet they earn more than them.

The Kenya Magistrates and Judges Association (KMJA) has, in an application filed at the Labour court, claimed that SRC has put MCAs and resident magistrates in the same job grade despite the fact that the academic requirements for MCAs are far below those of judicial officers.

“That notwithstanding, MCAs earn an amount for higher bands like the principal magistrate including earning allowances for sitting in committees and assembly sessions whereas resident magistrates, in the same bands, earn less than this and do not earn sitting allowances,” KMJA says in court papers.

FULL-TIME JOB

The job of a judicial officer is classified as fulltime job.

On the other hand, the job of an MP or an MCA is classified as part-time. A judicial officer is thus prohibited from engaging in any other gainful employment.

MPs and MCAs are allowed to engage in other gainful employment. Despite this glaring evidence against the order of logic, the SRC has remunerated part-time state officers such as MPs and MCAs better than fulltime judicial officers.

KMJA argues that the nature of work done by magistrates and Kadhis is the same as that of judges and that they hear some potentially risky cases like robbery with violence. However, SRC failed to provide security for them while MPs and MCAs all have security.

CAR GRANTS

The magistrates say that they should either be provided with official transport or given car grants and not car loans.

Further, KMJA says that judicial officers are expected to hear cases from 8am to 5pm, yet at the same time they have to render decisions which they are expected to research on before writing them.

“The time for doing this is not provided for in law. This, therefore, condemns judicial officers to research, draft and write rulings and judgments during their own private time, at night, during annual leave and during weekends as well as in between breaks during workshops, seminars and conferences,” KMJA says.

The association says these are major issues that SRC ought to have considered before computing the current remuneration and benefits for magistrates and Kadhis.

The case will be mentioned on April 29.