Members of the County Assembly, will now earn close to Sh400,000 besides being awarded a development budget if proposals by the new County Assemblies Forum are adopted.
MCAs currently pocket a monthly salary of Sh144,376 and the proposal will almost triple their pay.The clamour for a pay rise by the 2,100 MCAs, coming on the back of similar demands by the 416 Members of Parliament, will only worsen the country’s wage bill crisis at a time limited public resources are also being gobbled up by repayment of a choking public debt. If the MCAs get their way, the taxpayer will cough up an extra Sh32 billion over the five-year term, the figure rising even higher once the MPs’ pay rise is factored in.
According to the Salaries and Remuneration Commission, the public wage bill for the financial year 2019-2020 was Sh944 billion.This was nearly 60 per cent of the government revenues for the same period, that stood at Sh1.6 trillion.The bill has been rising partly fueled by fat allowances drawn by government employees as well as outright theft such as the reported Sh35 billion looted at the counties through ghost workers.In an exclusive interview with Nation after being elected unopposed to lead CAF, Mr Philemon Sabulei stated that there is a huge disparity in the remuneration of MCAs and MPs, and yet they have the same roles.
