SRC defends move to raise State, public officers' pay as Kenyans feel pinch of high cost of living

During a press conference on Saturday, SRC chairperson Lyn Mengich said the commission was only implementing the third of a four-part cycle of agreed upon salary increments for public servants.

She went on to say that there was a freeze in raises during the Covid-19 period, but the increments have resumed.

"The commission set a four-year review cycle (for increments) and we are now in the third review cycle...there was a salary structure freeze due to Covid-19... the commission has reviewed the Salaries as required," Mengich said.

However, she acknowledged the issue with the ballooning wage bill, saying, the compensation of all public officers is at the Ksh.998 billion mark and is set to reach the Ksh.1 trillion mark.

"The wage bill is informed by growth in numbers of employees ..the country employs about one million public officers," Mengich said. 

She said salaries will be harmonised to bring them all to the 50th percentile.

"We will also evaluate the job requirements and their relative worth to determine the desired pay for each public servant," Mengich said.

SRC said Treasury had allocated Ksh22.6 billion toward salary increments, with 40% going to teachers (Ksh9.1 billion), 30% going to the civil service (Ksh6.7 billion), 27% going to national and county governments and 3% going to state officers (Ksh574 million).

The remarks by SRC come amidst public uproar over the increment of salaries.

President William Ruto on Friday however dismissed the SRC proposal to increase top government officials' salaries including those in the Cabinet and MPs arguing that the gap between the low-earning public servants and the high earners is huge and hence should be moderated.

He shot down the proposal and directed the commission to come up with ways to standardize salaries for government officials to align with international standards.

At the same time, the head of state approved the SRC proposal to increase the monthly dues of the lower cadre of civil servants.