‘No salary increase for President, DP, CSs, MPs!’ Ruto shuts down SRC proposal

President William Ruto has dismissed the recent proposal by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) that sought to increase salaries for top government officials.

Speaking on Friday at KICC during the launch of digital government services, President Ruto poured cold water on the proposal maintaining that the gap between the low-earning public servants and the high earners is huge hence should be moderated.

He therefore shot down the proposal to increase salaries for the President, Deputy President, Cabinet Secretaries as well as Members of Parliament among other senior officials.

The Head of State instead said he had directed the SRC to come up with ways to standardize salaries for government officials to align with the international standards.

"For other State officers, myself, my deputy, ministers, PSs na wale wadosi wengine wa Bunge, sisi mambo yetu tungojee tafadhali. Hiyo mshahara itakwama hapo," he said.

"I have instructed the SRC to give us international best practices because we need to reduce the gap between all of us who work for the people of Kenya. We need to make sure that the gap between the person paid the least and the person paid the most is not too big because we are all workers."

According to the President, it is unfair for one public official to earn a salary 100 times more than another in the same government, and thus the commission should strive to find the balance.

"It is not possible that the people at the top earn 100 times more than the people at the bottom. It is not right because we live in the same country, we buy the same food, we go to the same shop,” he noted.

"I have told SRC that there is an international compression formula...until they come back to me, the salaries will have to wait."

The proposal by SRC which has since caused public uproar sought to have the President's salary increased from the current Ksh.1,433,750 to Ksh.1,650,000 and that of the deputy president from Ksh.1,227,188 to Ksh.1,402,500.

President Ruto however approved a similar proposal by SRC to increase salaries of the lower cadre of civil servants by between 7-10 per cent effective July 1, 2023.