Thank God for the Salaries and Remuneration Commission

  

Date Posted: 6/6/2013 12:32:53 AM

Posted By: Chadeshady  Membership Level: Gold  Total Points: 1697

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I tend to believe that the best thing that has ever happened to Kenya (yet so far) with its current state of economy is the setting up of the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC). This is for the sole reason (among many) that the Salaries and Remuneration Commission has put our country on the right path for assured growth and development. Hence you can understand my enthusiasm for being grateful to God; and with good reason too.

It’s no news that our country beautiful country Kenya is a developing nation; in-fact one whose economy heavily relies on donor countries’ funding and lending agencies such as the World Bank and the International Monitory Fund to sustain its ever ambitious budgets; and countries like China to fund its major development initiatives. Here is the irony, we contract the very same people (in this case China) to build the Thika Super Highway and it is them we borrow funds to finance the project. Ambitious, huh? In case you are not aware, Kenya’s economy sustains roughly 30% of the annual budget; a major concern that warrants the need to put in place new and effective mechanisms to curb the run-away wage bill.

Just so you were wondering where I was going with this and where the Salaries and Remuneration Commission fits in all this; this is where... the wage bill. See, the past two months at around the time after the Supreme Court’s verdict to rule in favour of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) that declared President Uhuru Kenyatta fourth president of this nation, the elected Members of Parliament set out to award themselves huge salaries citing insufficient wage pays. So early was the move and they were yet to deliver services to the very people that had voted for them; and if I

recall what my Bible tells me in 2nd Thessalonians 3:10 ‘For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if anyone would not work, neither should he eat.’ I don’t know about you, but to me, the Bible is the mother of all Constitutions. Why then would our MPs demand an increase in their salaries and they are yet to make good on their service delivery? Moreover, who in their rightful mind would be dissatisfied with a salary worth half a million shillings while the common ‘mwananchi’ is earning less than Sh. 100,000 and can still manage to make ends eat? It’s only in Kenya.

The Salaries and Remuneration Commission is the ultimate answer to our difficult economic reality as long as our MPs are seated in Parliament claiming to work tirelessly for our own good. Sarah Serem’s (now that’s one tough iron lady) move to reduce the MPs’ wage bill, apparently one of the most exaggerated in both developing and developed nations worldwide, will enable the Kenyan government to be able to manage its day to day financial activities. Believe me when I say that as a developing nation, it’s utter suicide for our government to spend a lot of its income on salaries and allowances because this will cripple other sectors of our economy and reduce chances of the government lifting this economy from stagnation.

When all is said and done, I’d readily encourage the Salaries and Remuneration Commission to even reduce the wage bill further if only it will enable that street mama purchase maize flour for her kids to have dinner tonight.

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