How Kenya Government Plans to Manage its Bloated Wage Bill

The government of Kenya, through SRC, is on the verge of introducing a raft of measures meant to manage the bloated wage bill. According to KBC report, allowances and benefits paid to public servants will soon be reduced.

Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) has drafted a policy that will see all public sector allowances harmonized.

SRC chairperson Lynn Mengich claimed that the absence of a policy framework to determine the payment of allowances in the public sector had led to increased wage bill, that has doubled within a span of five years.

“The wage bill has been increasing over the years, rising from kshs.434.9 billion in 2012/13 to kshs.827 billion in 2019/20. The expenditure on allowances rose from ksh.263.3 billion in 2015/16 to kshs.322.5 billion in 2018,” Mengich stated.

Ms Mengich revealed that all the 247 allowances paid to public officers accounted to almost 48 percent of the total wage bill.

“Different institutions pay allowances using different justifications, eligibility criteria, rates and modes of payment,” she added.

The SRC draft seeks to streamline the control and management of allowances to enhance transparency, accountability, fairness and equity.

According to the SRC policy, “allowances and benefits will be paid in absolute amounts and not as a percentage of the basic or gross salary.”

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