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The Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) has explained why it proposed to increase salaries for senior civil servants.

While addressing the press on Saturday, July 1, 2023, the commission led by its chairperson Lyn Mengich noted that the current salary review was meant to be implemented earlier but the exercise was halted due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

She defended that the proposal was just but an implementation of the third of a four-part review cycle for salary increments.

“SRC set a four-year review cycle and we are now in the third review cycle. There was a salary structure freeze due to Covid-19. The commission has now reviewed the Salaries as required,” she stated.

Earlier, SRC had proposed to increase the salaries of State officers by a whopping 14 percent in a move meant to cushion them against the harsh economic times.

In the proposal that sparked debate, SRC had stated that the salary review would see President William Ruto, his deputy Rigathi Gachagua, Cabinet Secretaries (CSs) and Members of Parliament (MPs) receive a salary increment in the next two years.

Ruto’s salary was set to be increased from Ksh1,443,750 to Ksh1,546,875 effective 1 July 2023 while his deputy’s salary would be raised to Ksh1,367,438 from Ksh1,227,188.

Ruto rejects SRC proposal

However, the President rejected SRC’s proposal and instead proposed a 7-10 percent pay rise for police officers, KDF officers, teachers and other civil servants as of July 1, 2023.

While defending the move, the Head of State opined that salaries for top government officials will remain redundant until the commission achieves international standards in rationalising salaries for every civil servant.

“I know there is a proposal by SRC for the increase of salaries of different cadres of both civil servants and other public servants. Because of the economic times we live in, we have approved that salaries of other civil servants can be adjusted beginning tomorrow,” the President said.

“For the other people, the state officers, myself, my deputy, ministers, PSs and MPs, ours will wait. I have instructed the SRC to give us international best practices because we need to reduce the gap between all of us who work for the people of Kenya. We need to make sure that the gap between the person paid the least and the person paid the most is not too big,” he added.