Ove the week, the Salaries and Renumeration Commission (SRC) ignited a heated debate online after it revealed a new review of salaries for state officials the president, his deputy, cabinet secretaries among others. Surprisingly, the commission said that those in the lower curdle will have to wait a little longer as the country was facing a cash crush.
This left Kenyans wondering how the commission will say that there is insufficient funds but at the same time proposes a salary increment for state officials. This attracted the attention of president William Ruto who said that the state officials starting with him all the way to the members of his cabinet will not receive any salary increment as proposed by the SRC.
While talking during a public function, Ruto instead asked the commission to look into harmonizing the salaries of all civil servants especially those in the lower ranks to ensure that it meets the global standards.
His direction to the Commission has however attracted mixed reactions with lawyer Ahmednasir Abdullahi telling off the head of state against directing and independent commission. According to Ahmednasir, the commission was exercising it’s constitutional mandate and if the president is okay with the current salary then he should donate the extra to charity.
“SRC is an independent Constitutional Commission that fixes salaries and benefits for all GOK employees the President, his deputy, cabinet and judges. It doesn’t require their concurrence when it adds or reduces their salaries. For instance if the President and his deputy are philanthropic enough (in the words of Speaker Keneth Marende) they can give the increment to charity. But they have no powers to countermand the commission.” Ahmednasir Abdullahi.
Content created and supplied by: ChrisYash (via Opera
News )