MCAs payrise impasse affect county services

Activities in the 47 county assemblies could further be affected if the standoff on pay review between the MCAs and the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) continues to persist.

In a move likely to halt critical operations in the regional assemblies, the MCAs told the Salaries Commission to stop the salaries review until an amicable solution is arrived at..

This even as SRC opposed the proposal by MCAs to increase their salaries by 40 per cent of a governor’s gross salary.

The MCAs argued that their salary increment should be at least 40 per cent of a Governor’s gross pay, which stands at Sh924,000. This means that should they have their way, they will be pocketing Sh390,270 per month gross salary.

Yesterday, while appearing before the Senate’s Devolution and Inter-governmental Relations Committee chaired by Wajir legislator Sheikh Abbas, the Commission’s chair Lyn Mengich stated that the parameters for job evaluation criteria stipulated in the Constitution and SRC Act 2011 is not based on the governor’s salary to cap the pay for Ward representatives.

“We use job evaluation as a methodology to help us re-assess the relative work of the comparative work of jobs in the public service. We don’t use a parameter that says because the president earns at this level, so we must use the same percentage to gauge others pay,” said Mengich.

The MCAs currently earn about Sh144,375 which includes a basic salary of Sh86,625, a house allowance of Sh45,000 and a salary market adjustment of Sh12,750.

However, last month the Lyn Mengich led commission reviewed MCAs gross monthly pay and raised it from Sh144,375 to Sh154,481, starting this month which the MCAs termed as a ‘paltry’ Sh10,000 salary enhancement.

In the review that will be implemented in two phases, MCA will receive gross pay of Sh164,588 in the 2024-25 financial year which they opposed, calling the review an ‘injustice and unfair labour practice.
According to Mengich, SRC retained existing committee sitting allowance for state officers who serve in the county assembly house committees.

She held that currently the chairpersons earning Sh6,500 per sitting and a maximum of Sh104,000 per month while vice chairperson is paid Sh5,200 per month with a maximum of Sh83,200 per month while members earn Sh3,200 per sitting with a maximum of Sh62,400 per month. “We re-evaluated all the roles of the MCAs, called on our technical experts just to be sure nothing is missing. We were re-evaluated five times but it remained at groupD4. That’s the reason why their pay remained at the same cap,” said commission’s vice chair Amani Komora.

However, County Assemblies Forum (CAF) Secretary General Chege Mwaura called for the halting of the implementation of salary review for the year 2023-2024 until the stalemate is resolved.

“We are asking that the SRC review for the salaries be held until this committee resolve the issue at hand and a consensus is reached on the matter,” said Mwaura.

The Association of Members of County Assemblies Secretary General Stanley Karanja has however poked holes on the job evaluation criteria by the salaries commission saying its erroneous.

“What was the source of your job evaluation information? When you have a wrong source of information even if you do it four times, it will still give the same results. The assemblies have their own budgets and it has gone up. We are not telling the SRC to add us money, the money is within the assembly,” said Karanja.

He went on: “It is very discouraging that the salaries commission has reduced the members of county assembly to a mere Sh165,000 yet they are faced with their electorates daily who have various financial needs and look upon the MCAs to cater for them ranging from medical bills and school fees among others.”

Already, more than 24 county assemblies across the country have shut down operations to protest for higher salaries.

“The net effect of the different pay structures that were used, there was no reduction. We are alive to the fact that you can’t reduce the pay of an employee because we are guided by the Kenyan law,” said Komora.