Public wage bill set to rise even higher Sarah Serem

The Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) chairperson Sarah Serem on Tuesday said that the public wage bill has still increased drastically, despite the many efforts her commission put in place to curb it.

Speaking during a ceremony where SRC commissioners marked the end of their six-year term in office, Serem blamed this to the various establishments that were brought by devolution, which then hiked the public wage bill from Ksh.465 billion in 2012/2013 to Ksh.627 billion in 2015/2016.

Further she is lamenting that the wage bill is expected to rise to approximately Ksh.650 billion by the end 2017/2018.

Serem, however, remained adamant and cited the comprehensive work in harmonising public servants wages, wage bill sustainability processes and coming up with a remuneration policy as key achievements of the commission.

“Revenues have not grown to our medium term target which is still below 7% of the GDP. We still have a long way to go. We need to look at the numbers of employees within the cabinet sector. The government institutions need to take a closer look,” said Serem, calling on all sectors to support efforts to tame this.

The Sarah Serem-led team has been in office since 2011 and as part of their final duties, the commission today launched a Salaries and Remuneration Report for the period between 2011 and 2017.

According to Article 250 (6a) of the Constitution, a member of a commission or holder of an independent office, unless ex-officio shall be appointed for a single term of six years and he/she will not be eligible for re-appointment.

The ceremony was presided over by Deputy President William Ruto.