Kenya: Operations of county governments might grind to a halt if the dispute over salaries for striking Members of the County Assemblies (MCAs) is not urgently resolved.
Salaries and Remuneration Chairperson Sarah Serem
Stakeholders in the devolution sector have warned that services in the counties risk stalling if MCA and the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) do not end the impasse soon.
MCAs have maintained that they will continue with their go-slow until their salaries are reviewed while the commission is adamant that they must first undergo job re-evaluation.
SRC chairperson Sarah Serem has warned that unless the MCAs return to work and be subjected to this process, they will continue earning Sh79,000 per month.
The tough-talking Serem insisted that the MCAs must present themselves for job re-evaluation to end the salaries impasse.
“We cannot review the salaries for the position where occupants do not exist,” Serem told the Senate Committee on Devolved Governments chaired by Kipchumba Murkomen.
The MCAs have, however, stood their ground, saying they will not comply with Serem’s directive until their demands are met.
The county representatives are demanding to be paid Sh300,000.
Serem absolved the commission of any wrongdoing in terms of the structure used to peg salaries of state officials.
“The PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) report was one of the many reports used to come up with salaries for state officers,” she explained.
Murkomen, senators Amos Wako (Busia) and Omar Hassan (Mombasa), and Beatrice Elaji took Serem to task, asking her explain how she arrived at the figures after MCAs faulted the process.
Political job
County Speakers Forum chairman Nur Abdi questioned how SRC came up with the figures and if it was possible to evaluate a political job.
Serem said they pegged the grading of salaries on the secondary data they had and explained that it was because of this that they want to have primary data based on the job description of MCAs.
Murkomen urged Serem’s team to find a lasting solution to avoid a power vacuum that county executives could exploit.
Last Thursday, the Transition Authority (TA) cautioned that there was an “imminent collapse of devolution” if the standoff was not urgently addressed.
TA Chairman Kinuthia Wamwangi expressed concerned that the transition process might collapse if the MCAs continue with their strike.
TA proposed that an arbitration team acceptable to both sides be constituted to interrogate and explore all options at their disposal to help resolve this impasse.
Wamwangi also appealed to the MCAs to soften their stance and give dialogue a chance.
The salaries dispute pitting MCAs and SRC worsened last week after the commission demanded that MCAs must account for what they do to warrant the amount they want to be paid.
By Roselyne Obala, The Standard
