Kenya’s Public Servants have been told their salaries will be increased “in the next 100 days”.
Cabinet Secretary for Public Service, Affirmative Action and Gender, Aisha Jumwa said a Technical Committee was being formed to review and make recommendations on what would be an appropriate pay rise.
“Civil Servants are a demoralised lot and we don’t want to see them suffering,” Ms Jumwa (pictured) said.
“They are unable to cope with the high cost of living occasioned by runaway inflation,” she said.
“We want to revamp their morale by increasing their salaries as soon as possible.”
Ms Jumwa said as a mother she knew the majority of Public Servants were struggling to pay school fees for their children, pay rent and fend for their families.
“It’s a sad state of affairs, but I have come to solve the problem so that they can live a dignified life,” she said.
The Cabinet Secretary said if Public Servants were well remunerated, there would be no corruption cases.
Her pledge comes at a time when the International Monetary Fund is pushing for job cuts and a reduction in expenditure on the Public Service, but Ms Jumwa maintained the country’s wage bill was manageable and there was money to cater for the salary increment.
There are at least 923,000 Public Servants in the country, being paid more than Sh890 billion ($A11.3 billion) annually.
The National Treasury has been struggling to raise funds to cater for the bloated wage bill that consumes more than a half of the country’s Budget, hampering completion of development projects.
Nairobi, 3 November 2022
