[A joint parliamentary sitting, March 15, 2017. Photo/PSCU]
President Uhuru Kenyatta raised concern over the increasing public wage bill in the country.
He said this is one of the biggest challenges and threat the Kenyan economy is facing, saying wage bill threatens to destroy development agenda as a nation.
''Today, the public wage bill stands at 627 Billion shillings per year, amounting to 50% of the total revenues collected by the Government. This staggering amount is used to pay the salaries and allowances of 700,000 public officers including those of us here today.''
In simple terms, Uhuru said 50 per cent of all the money collected as revenues in Kenya goes in to the pockets of less than 2 per cent of the country’s total population.
He said, to tame this, he received an interim report from the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) outlining the review of remuneration and benefits for State Officers for the period 2017-2022 (five years).
The report recommended, amongst other measures, a rationalisation of the salaries and allowances paid to senior state officers, public servants, elected officials from MCA all the way to the president.
''That will result in a reduction in salaries and allowances for those elected in August this year. As your president, and as a Kenyan, I fully support the recommendations of the SRC and I call upon all of us to adopt these recommendations,'' he said.
He continued: "I appreciate that the silent fear of every politician is ending their career in politics broke and destitute. This fear may have its foundations in our history, when our MP’s and ministers would retire or lose their elective seats and thereafter wallow in poverty. Since then as a country we have come a long way in addressing these fears.''
As politicians Uhuru said they must accept the ever increasing salaries and allowances had contributed to the unsustainable demands by other cadres within the public sector to increase their own remuneration at the expense of citizens and the country’s development agenda.
He noted the recommendations would allow government to pay more attention to medical professionals, teachers, policemen, prisons officers and others who also need to receive adequate compensation for the services that they render.
Uhuru was speaking during his State of the Nation Address, at parliament building, Wednesday.