- Normal operations of the county governments will remain in limbo as the MCAs’ standoff with the Salaries and Remuneration Commission over perks persists.
- The SRC has vehemently opposed the proposal by the ward reps to increase their salaries and enhance their benefits as many people suffer poverty..
Image: EZEKIEL AMING'A
Normal operations of the county governments will be stuck in limbo as the MCAs’ standoff with the Salaries and Remuneration Commission over perks persists.
It's all about money demanded by servant leaders, who suffered another blow over cash as key assembly business stalls.
The SRC has vehemently opposed the push by the ward representatives to increase their salaries and enhance their benefits.
The MCAs are demanding their salaries to be increased to to 40 per cent of a governor’s gross salary, which stands at Sh924,000, raising their salary to Sh390,270 per month.
Currently, an MCA takes home about Sh144,375, which includes a basic salary of Sh86,625, a house allowance of Sh45,000 and a salary market adjustment of Sh12,750.
But appearing before the Senate’s Devolution committee seeking to strike a truce between the parties, SRC chairperson Lyn Mengich on Thursday rejected the clamour for money.
Mengich told the panel chaired by Wajir Senator Abbas Mohamed that parameters for job evaluation criteria stipulated in the Constitution and SRC Act 2011 are not based on a governor’s salary to cap the pay for the MCAs.
“We don’t use a parameter that says because the president earns at this level, so we must use the same percentage to gauge others' pay,” Mengich told the committee.
“We use job evaluation as methodology to help us re-asses the relative work of the comparative work of jobs in the public service,” she added.
More than 24 county assemblies have halted their operations — adjourned indefinitely — in protest against their ‘poor’ pay.
The move has affected smooth running of the counties as crucial legislation, budges and policies are not being considered by the assemblies.
Last week, the commission reviewed MCAs' gross monthly pay from Sh144,375 to Sh154,481, starting this month, which is a Sh10,000 salary enhancement.
In the review that will be implemented in two phases, MCA will receive gross pay of Sh164,588 in the 2024-25 financial year, which they opposed and term an injustice.
“We re-evaluated all the roles of the MCAs, called on our technical experts just to be sure nothing is missing. That’s the reason why their pay remained at the same cap,” SRC vice chairperson Amani Komora said.
The County Assemblies Forum secretary general Chege Mwaura called for halting implementation of salary review for 2023-24 until the stalemate is resolved.
“We are asking the SRC review for salaries be halted until this committee resolves the issue at hand and a consensus is reached," Mwaura said.
The Association of Members of County Assemblies secretary general Stanley Karanja has criticised the job evaluation criteria by the commission, calling it erroneous.
“What was the source of your job evaluation information? When you have a wrong source of information, even if you do it four times, it will still give the same results,” Karanja said.
“The assembly has its own budget and it has gone up. We are not telling the SRC to add up money, the money is within the assembly,” he added.
Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei questioned why the SRC has failed to enhance the MCAs’ perks yet counties had received additional revenue allocation in the passed Division of Revenue Allocation Act.
“The SRC is in the dark on what the role of an MCA is and they are crumbling and shooting in the dark. We passed the Appropriations Bill and what the MCAs are requesting is not additional money, they just want to work around their budget,” he said.
“We need a meeting with SRC to look into calculations and how they conduct job evaluations. We don’t understand how evaluation will show Job Group D down to the very last minute,” Mandera Senator Ali Roba said.
Nominated Senator Peris Tobiko faulted SRC emphasising he thought the justification on job evaluation criteria by the commission was faulty and unfair and will only impede the oversight role of MCAs.
“SRC is mischievous because they are saying they reviewed the salaries according to parameters of performance and productivity. These people (MCAs) operate around the clock, and not from 8am to5pm like them. Where is the fairness to MCAs? Tobiko asked.