Kakamega Deputy Governor, Ayub Savula has pleaded with President William Ruto to reject Public Service Cabinet Secretary CS Kuria's proposal to transition government employees from permanent and pensionable terms to contract, saying the move will be detrimental to civil servants' welfare.
Speaking during a thanksgiving service at ACK St. Emmanuel Shiunya Church in Kisa North Ward, Khwisero Sunday, he said that the move will be detrimental to civil servants' welfare if implemented.
Savula said that the permanent and pension scheme offers public servants a safety net on retirement and switching them to contractual terms would have devastating effects on their post-employment lives.
“Former regimes have worked with a civil service that is permanent and pensionable and I am urging President Ruto to reject Kuria’s temptation to plunge the country’s workforce in turmoil,” he said.
The deputy governor said that the change will infringe on the basic rights of employees in terms of job security as stipulated in law.
He said that any public servant has a right to security of tenure of their jobs which contractual terms cannot offer.
Kuria has proposed that all civil servants should be placed on contractual terms as opposed to the current 'Permanent and Pensionable' terms.
According to Kuria, change from the current permanent and pensionable to contracts will significantly improve service delivery while taming the runaway wage bill.
The CS spoke at a presser on the ongoing countrywide strike by doctors. He noted that a review of the wage bill established that sustaining employees' permanent and pensionable terms was untenable.
According to the Kuria, almost half of the country’s tax revenues is consumed by only one million public servants, and the other half is left to be distributed among all the remaining Kenyans.
The Council of Governors has already indicated it may reject Kuria’s proposal.
Savula said that Kuria’s proposal was strange and it remains unclear what he seeks to achieve.
