DOWNGRADE: Nakuru County Tourism Association will petition the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) to review its decision which saw Naivasha town degraded from tier one to two.

The association waded into the controversy warning of looming closure of hotels and massive job losses due to the downgrade that had seen the daily subsistence allowances rates for civil servants reduced.

Under the newly gazetted rates, Nakuru has been ranked together with Mombasa, Kisumu and Nairobi while Naivasha falls under the lower cluster. The daily rates for Nakuru have been raised to Sh22,000 for the top officers and Sh4,200 for the lowest while those staying in Naivasha will get Sh18,000 and Sh3,500 respectively. David Mwangi, the association chairman, said the move by SRC was beneficial to hoteliers in Nakuru but a curse for their counterparts in Naivasha.

He said many of the investors had used billions in investments only for the SRC to downgrade the town without any consultations.

Job losses

“Many of the hoteliers are thinking about relocating to Nairobi, Kisumu, Nakuru and Mombasa and this will lead to massive job losses,” Mwangi said. Speaking after meeting the hoteliers in Naivasha, he said Naivasha hosted the majority of the hotels in Nakuru County and was now a hub of conferences.

The Chairman of the association in Naivasha Kimani Gitau said they would petition the SRC and the Ministry of Tourism to relook into the decision.