Government increases salaries of permanent secretaries fivefold

Permanent Secretary Ministry of Public Service Catherine Bitarakwate. Photo/AFP

In an effort to enhance salaries of public servants, Government has increased the salaries of Chief Justice, his deputy, head of public service, deputy and permanent secretaries.

According to the new salary structure announced by the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Public Service Catherine Bitarakwate, while the salary for the Chief Justice and his deputy almost doubled, head of public service and his deputy quadrupled while that of Permanent secretaries quintupled (increased fivefold).

In a circular dated January12, 2017 to all permanent secretaries, Bitarakwate announced that effective January1, the salary of the Chief Justice will be increased  from sh11.5m to sh20m per month, his deputy from sh10.5m to sh18m; head of public service sh4.9m to 17.6m his deputy sh4m to sh15.5m and permanent secretaries from sh3.7m to sh15.4m.

"The salary enhancement takes effect on January1, 2017. You are required to utilize the resources within your votes and where inadequate, further guidance will be provided by the permanent secretary and secretary to the Treasury," Bitarakwate said.

When contacted, Bitarakwate confirmed the increment however she said the increment is part of the ongoing salary increment for all public servants.

According to Bitarakwate, cabinet in 2006 passed a pay policy for all categories of public servants however due to government priorities that keep coming up, the Policy has not been wholly implemented.

"We have been doing in a phased manner. This is not the first category of officers' whose salaries we enhanced. Already government has covered the salary enhancement for teachers, doctors, scientists, pilots, Auditor General and the staff," She said.

Asked when the rest of officers will also have their salaries increased, Bitarakwate said, "they should wait because there is already a roadmap."

She said the policy was supposed to be implemented within 10 years however due to other government priorities, it was not possible.

Asked the criteria used in selecting officers whose salaries are to be increased, she said, "the criteria may not be understood by everyone but we have to start somewhere."

Sources in Judiciary and in ministries say the staff is already up in arms demanding to know why they were not considered.

"Do these people (bosses) work alone? How can their salaries are increased to that level when the technical teams are just looking on?" a source in the Ministry of Public Service complained.

Over the years, MPs have complained about piecemeal salary increments in government and called for a salary review commission to address issues of salary disparity.

In a latest report to Parliament, the Equal Opportunities Commission complained of unjustified wide salary and wage disparities among public servants and warned of a looming danger.

The Commission noted that to that it takes seven years for the lowest political leader to earn what the highest political leader earns in one year.

Civil Society Budget Advocacy Group (CSBAG) last year while meeting media houses editors called for an establishment of a salary review commission to determine salaries structure of civil servants. 

Thy argued that the current salary structure is demotivating because of the huge disparities in payments.