Labour Party leader Ababu Namwamba (with mic) addresses alongside top Jubilee Party leadership, May 30, 2017. [Photo: Ababu Namwamba]
Labour Party leader Ababu Namwamba has hailed the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC), after released a new salary structure, slashing salaries and allowances of state officers, including the president and his deputy.
The structure takes effect starting September this year to 2022, and will save Kenya over Sh8 billion annually, by slashing the public wage bill by 35 per cent.Members of Parliament will also miss plenary sessions' sitting allowances, while Parliament Majority and Minority Leaders and committee chairmen, will lose special responsibility allowances.
"With unreserved pride and unequivocal appreciation, on my own beheld and on behalf of Labour Party, I salute the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) for the bold measures announced today aimed at achieving sanity, balance and sustainability in the country's public wage bill. I am particularly pleased that these measures do vindicate the agenda I have pursued for quite some while now," said Namwamba.
In a statement, he noted two years ago, he introduced a historic legislation in the National Assembly, seeking to control Kenya's runaway Public Wage Bill.
"My initiating Motion and the subsequent Salaries and Remuneration Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2015 took the first step on the difficult 1000-mile journey to a more balanced, better managed and ultimately sustainable public wage structure. The motivation behind these proposals was the long overdue need to review and restructure the country's public wage structure to make it more equitable and sustainable."
He said Kenya's public wage ratio is 'grotesquely unequal, with obscenely high earners side by side with sickeningly low earners.'
"The wage bill also inherently unsustainable at 52 per cent of GDP, consuming huge resources thereby constraining development spending."
The measures announced by SRC, Namwamba said, were therefore a giant step towards our long cherished dream of equity and sustainability in the public wage structure.
"I particularly applaud the proposal to lower the basic pay across the board and to scrap sitting allowances for all salaried Public Servants and State Officers including Members of Parliament as well as limitations and stricter controls over mileage claims and travelling allowances generally. These are key planks in my Bill, which naturally caused lots of discomfort in some obvious quarters. There is neither logic nor justification in a salaried officer earning an allowance for attending a meeting that is a core part of the normal conduct of his or her duties," said the Budalangi MP.
He further challenged all candidates seeking various elective positions in the August 8 general elections, from President to MCA, to publicly declare support for the measures announced by SRC and commit to abide by them upon election.
"These measures must not be mutilated or diluted by any selfish or self-serving amendments. Labour Party supports justice and equity in the treatment and remuneration of all cadres of workers," noted Nmwamba, Monday.