'We're all on contract on earth!' Kuria seeks to stop permanent employment for civil servants

Public Service, Performance and Delivery Management Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria now says he will present a proposal to convert all public servants from permanent to contractual terms.

The CS spoke on Tuesday in Nairobi during a press conference on the ongoing nationwide doctors’ strike, noting that a review of the wage bill found that sustaining employees permanently was unpalatable.

According to the CS, half of the country’s tax revenues are consumed by only one million public servants, and then the other half is left to be distributed among all the remaining Kenyans.

“Last week we were at the wage bill conference and we saw one million public servants consume over 50 per cent of our tax revenues. There is something wrong when 1 million people take half of our tax revenues and the 53 million people take the other one,” Kuria said.

He faulted the doctors over their demands in the 2017 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), which among other things seeks that they be employed on permanent and pensionable terms.

Kuria threatened to table the proposal before the Cabinet to show the doctors that the government is not against fulfilling their demands, but that those demands are unattainable.

“If the doctors think we're against them, this week on Friday I will move to Cabinet to present a proposal that if Cabinet approves, all government workers from drivers to cleaners...everybody will be converted to contract,” said the CS.

“There will be no permanent employee anymore; if you want to be permanent, show me that even on earth, your tenure is permanent. We are all on contract even on this earth. We are going to convert them from permanent and pensionable to contract and still pensionable.”

The doctors on Tuesday said their push for the immediate posting of medical interns with a monthly salary of Ksh.206,000 was non-negotiable.

The Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) Secretary General Dr. Davji Atellah said the doctors are willing to abandon their other 18 demands, as long as the one on paying the young medics’ is not tampered with.