President Ruto orders salary pay rise for Kenyan scientists

President William Ruto has asked the Public Service Commission to harmonise the salaries of Kenyan scientists to be at par with their regional colleagues.

The President said the departure of local scientists to foreign countries due to poor remuneration should not continue.

He directed Head of Public Service Felix Koskei to work with the PSC and sort out the pay disparity.

"We are not paying our scientists as we should. Many of them are under the public service, and there is a need to relook their terms of service and salaries," he said.

He added: "I will get the Head of Public Service to identify a small team to assess what needs to be done so that we can match the renumeration of other scientists in our region."

The President made the remarks during the unveiling of Gede National Monument as a UNESCO World Heritage Site at the National Museums of Kenya on Friday.

Gede was inscribed Kenya's eighth UNESCO heritage site in July 2024.

The other inscribed UNESCO heritage sites in Kenya are the Lake Turkana National parks, Mt Kenya National Park and Forest, Lamu Old Town, Fort Jesus, Lake Bogoria, Thimlich Ohinga Archaeological Site and the Mijikenda Kaya Forests.

The function on Friday was held 40 years since the discovery or the Turkana Boy, the most complete skeleton of the earliest human ancestor ever recovered.

Present at the function were Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi, Tourism and Wildlife Cabinet Secretary Rebecca Miano, Kilifi Governor Gideon Mung'aro, UNESCO East Africa Regional Director Louis Haxthahausen and United Kingdom High Commissioner to Kenya Neil Wigan.

President Ruto said the government would invest KSh1 billion to expand facilities at the Nairobi National Museum and Uhuru Gardens.

Additionally, he said the government will fence off and guard sites belonging to the National Museums of Kenya around the country, which are vulnerable to land grabbers.

In that spirit, the government would partner with Kilifi County to fence the Gede National Monument.

During the function, Mr Wigan handed over to the Kenya National Archives digital material from the colonial era, which had been kept in the British Archives.

The material, which dates from 1907 to 1968, consists of 2,658 files and over 300,000 images.

President Ruto welcomed the gesture, saying "it consolidates the relationship between Kenya and the UK."

The President committed that the government will continue investing in the tourism sector, which generated Ksh.352 in revenue in 2023 and attracted 2.1 million visitors.

"We are mobilising resources to attract 5 million tourists annually by 2027," he said.

Others who attended the function were Australian High Commissioner Jenny Da Rin, Ambassadors Nasra Salim Mohamed Alhashmi (Oman), Arnaud Suquet (France), Sebastian Groth (Germany), Hiroshi Matsuura (Japan), Beyene Russom (Eritrea) and Morokat Janemathurkon (Thailand).