Kenya: The Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) has said salaries of county workers will be pegged on the revenue generated by respective counties.
Salaries and Remuneration Chairperson Sarah Serem
In an interview with The Standard on Saturday, Commission Chairperson Sarah Serem said it is up to counties to optimise their revenue collection in order to get a salary increment.
The commission, which is mandated to set salaries for state and public officers, said workers will also be appraised and have their jobs evaluated to justify their salaries.
In what seemed to be reference to Members of County Assemblies who have been seeking a pay rise, Serem warned that some counties risk collapsing owing to a huge wage bill.
“It is unfortunate that state officers continue demanding high pay rise while their counties generate insignificant income. It is also worrisome when counties use most of their money allocated by the government on salaries while development was not being considered.”
She said there was no way salaries of workers, especially the MCA’s, were going to be uniform when other counties were making no money while others were able to sustain their budgets.
Serem urged county governments to generate enough revenue to fund the high pay they are asking from the National Treasury.
She said the national and the county governments must also be able to attract and retain skills while releasing additional resources that will be used by both the governments in addressing development issues.
“We want to encourage the county governments to develop and implement strategic interventions that will help them increase the revenue collection. They must attract and retain skills they have and at the same time manage to sustain the wage bill,” said Serem. The regional lawmakers attacked Serem, accusing her of being disrespectful.
County Assembly Speakers Forum Chairman Abdi Nuh rejected the salaries commission’s planned job re-evaluation that Serem had earlier said would be the basis on which to review their pay. He termed the re-evaluation as intimidation that they will not accept.
The SRC has been grappling with demands by several workers to increase their salaries.
By Kibiwott Koross, The Standard
