Cabinet approves Sh100bn civil servants pay rise as doctors, lecturers strike rages on
The new salary review will take effect from July 1, just a month before the August elections.
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The cabinet meeting on Wednesday chaired by President Uhuru Kenyatta approved the allocation to cater for public sector allowances and salaries harmonisation.
The cabinet at the same time also approved funds for the recruitment of 10,000 police officers and 5,000 teachers.
Crippled health and education sectors
The move by the cabinet comes at a time when the country is faced with a crippled health and education sector following the continued strike by the doctors and lecturers.
The health workers are on a three month strike with the contentious issue being the implementation of the 2013 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).
The CBA covers, among other things, fair working hours and improved work environments and equipment, training, research and remuneration.
The government this week offered staff in public universities a Sh10 billion pay deal in a bid to end the three week strike.
However, the Universities Academic Staff Union (UASU) said the nationwide strike by the lecturers will remain in force pending the negotiation, signing, registration and implementation of the 2013-2017 CBA which the union is keen to secure before the end of the current Fiscal Year.
The move now gives hopes to the country’s public workers that the newly created structures with new salaries will take effect.
Job evaluation
In the civil servants pay package deal, all employees from both the county and national governments are expected to benefit from the review that resulted from a lengthy job evaluation exercise undertaken by the Salaries and Remunerations Commission (SRC).
The President also allocated funds to pay allowances that are currently being harmonised by the SRC.
The Kenya Union of Civil Servants Secretary General welcomed the allocation to harmonise the civil servants pay.
“Civil servants work very hard but are paid peanuts. We welcome the Cabinet’s move to allocate funds for purposes of paying civil servants,” Mr Odege said.
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