{"id":12362,"date":"2024-07-04T13:15:13","date_gmt":"2024-07-04T13:15:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/?p=12362"},"modified":"2024-07-04T13:15:13","modified_gmt":"2024-07-04T13:15:13","slug":"pay-rise-freeze-for-kenyan-mps-after-public-anger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/12362\/pay-rise-freeze-for-kenyan-mps-after-public-anger\/","title":{"rendered":"Pay rise freeze for Kenyan MPs after public anger"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Proposed pay rises for members of Kenya’s cabinet and parliament will not happen after President William Ruto ordered a review of the plans following public outcry.<\/p>\n

It comes a week after mass protests forced Mr Ruto to drop a controversial finance bill that had included tax hikes.<\/p>\n

Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) Chairperson Lyn Mengich said on Wednesday the commission would “freeze” the salary increases for state officers due to “the current realities of the economy”.<\/p>\n

Initially the SRC had recommended a pay increase of 2% and 5% for all state officials, including judges.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

People began questioning how the the salaries of politicians, including governors, could be raised when there was a supposed financial crisis.<\/p>\n

The U-turn came after discussions with the National Treasury, said Ms Mengich.<\/p>\n

Last year the SRC issued a notice, proposing that the increases take effect from the beginning of this month.<\/p>\n

But Public Service Minister Moses Kuria said he would not implement the increases “as applies” to the cabinet.<\/p>\n

Mr Ruto abandoned plans to increase taxes after protesters complained they could not afford to pay them as they were already hit by the sharp increase in the cost of living.<\/p>\n

Many said the government should first reduce spending, which President Ruto has vowed to do.<\/p>\n

Several lawmakers – including Aaron Cheruiyot, a senator from the ruling coalition – have called for parliament to reject the pay increase.<\/p>\n

Adan Keynan, an opposition party MP allied with the government, expressed a similar view, saying the proposed increase was “tone-deaf”.<\/p>\n

And opposition senator Edwin Sifuna said higher salaries could not be justified “when the whole country is saying we need to lessen the taxpayer burden”.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Samuel Njoroge, clerk of the National Assembly, told the People Daily newspaper that the SRC’s recommendation could not be overturned as they affected all state officers.<\/p>\n

“The changes are normal salary reviews or increments in any organisation,” he was quoted as saying.<\/p>\n

But Mr Ruto has asked the treasury to review the notice.<\/p>\n

“The president has emphasised that this is a time, more than ever before, for the executive and all arms of government to live within their means, ”\u00a0a statement by his spokesman said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Last week’s protests, led by young people, were the biggest in Kenya since Mr Ruto took office in 2022.<\/p>\n

The demonstrations have since morphed into calls for his resignation and demands that the security forces face justice over the killing of protesters.<\/p>\n

It is estimated by the state-funded rights commission that 39 people have been killed in the demonstrations over the last two weeks.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the protests appeared to degenerate into anarchy as shops and supermarkets were looted.<\/p>\n

Police have published images of 38 people wanted for \u201cengaging in lawlessness\u201d.<\/p>\n

Some of the young Kenyans linked to organising the protests alleged that hired “goons” had infiltrated the demonstrations.<\/p>\n

They said they were reassessing their strategy and were even thinking of calling off the protests altogether.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Proposed pay rises for members of Kenya’s cabinet and parliament will not happen after President William Ruto ordered a review of the plans following public outcry. It comes a week after mass protests forced Mr Ruto to drop a controversial finance bill that had included tax hikes. Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) Chairperson Lyn Mengich […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12251,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":6,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"BBC","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"0","show_view_counter":"0","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"0","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"0","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"0","show_popup_post":"0","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,2362,33],"tags":[111,2718,490],"class_list":["post-12362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-east-africa","category-featured","category-politics","tag-kenya","tag-salaries-and-remuneration-commission-src","tag-william-ruto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12362\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}