Members of the County Assemblies (MCAs) have accused the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) and the County Assemblies Forum (CAF) of double standards after the commission proposed a new pay structure for state officials working for the county assembly.
In the proposed pay structure, county assembly speakers and leaders of majority and minority in the 47 county assemblies will be the biggest winners of the pay increase.
The ward representatives who had announced a boycott of the plenary sittings until their issues are resolved were on Monday represented in the SRC meeting by the CAF leadership.
During the meeting, SRC proposed a new pay structure to be fully implemented in the financial year 2024/2025.
In the newly proposed structure by SRC, the gross salary of the county speaker who currently earns Sh525,525 has been increased to Sh601,674. The leaders of the majority and the minority currently receive Sh144, 375 equivalent to that of an MCA and will be taking home Sh204,717.
The increase is to be effected in instalments with the speakers earning Sh562, 312 in the financial year 2023/2024 and the full increase to be implemented in 2024/2025. The majority and minority leaders will earn Sh191, 324 in the next financial year before the full implementation.
Deputy Speakers of the County assemblies who currently earn Sh216, 563 will be receiving Sh247, 943 with the implementation beginning in the next financial year at Sh231, 722.
MCAs are the least of the beneficiaries of the newly proposed structure. MCAs who currently earn Sh144, 375 will be receiving Sh164, 588. In the next financial year of 2023/2014, they will receive Sh154, 481 which is Sh10,000 more than what they currently receive.
A section of the MCAs who are leading a breakaway faction from the CAF has however criticised the pay structure arguing that it is a ploy by SRC to get backing from the county assemblies.
The ward representatives are pushing for issues such as the reinstatement of plenary sitting allowances, financial autonomy and revocation of the 30 per cent tax levied on the car reimbursement fund.
According to Kinani Ward Representative Francis Wambua who is the chairman of the breakaway faction, the new structure is only meant to ensure that SRC gets the backing of the county assembly leaders.
“The structure only favours the leadership in the assembly such as the speakers and leaders of the majority. The pay for the MCAs was last reviewed upwards in 2013. CAF did not push for car reimbursement because all the CAF leaders are speakers and are entitled to two cars. We do not want CAF to represent our interests because they are already compromised and this is clear from what SRC has presented,” Mr Wambua said.
He has also said that the ward representatives have written a separate proposal to SRC and are waiting to be called for a meeting to discuss the proposal.
Kileleshwa MCA Robert Alai who is also part of the breakaway faction accused SRC of using the divide-and-rule method to scatter the demands of MCAs.
“The salary divide is so huge in the proposed structure. They want to make the house leadership comfortable yet they are just MCAs. We are aware they are using divide and rule to make the MCAs powerless in advocating for their demands,” Mr Alai said.
The CAF leadership has however insisted that the ongoing negotiations are for the welfare of the county officials and they will issue a statement once the ongoing negotiations with SRC are complete.
Apart from the gross salary, MCAs are entitled to committee sitting allowances of Sh3, 900 per sitting capped at Sh62, 400 monthly.
Committee chairpersons earn 6,500 per month capped at Sh104, 000 while the vice chairpersons earn Sh5, 200 per sitting capped at Sh83, 200.
