President Uhuru Kenyatta, MPs and other State officers will get higher perks starting July next year following a review of their pay by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC).
Others within this new review include judges, PSs, Attorney-General, Chief Of Defence Forces, MCAs, military service commanders and heads of commissions.
SRC will be benchmarking in South Africa, India and Canada where they will adopt their system of remuneration for similar officeholders.
The commission will review the pay upwards in view of cushioning inflation and salary cuts imposed in 2017.
“Given the cuts that happened in 2017, there will be a justification to increase or worse restore the salaries,” an SRC commissioner told Business Daily.
The new pay structure will come to effect in 2021, a year before August 2022 polls.
The review is constitutionally mandated to review the pay after every four years.
“The commission will also carry out a salary survey to collect data which will inform the salary structures for the 2021/22-2024/25 remuneration review cycle,” SRC chairperson Lyn Mengich said in a circular.
In 2017 when a similar review was conducted just after the August General Election, massive cuts in perks for State officials triggered a storm among the political class who, collectively, Ksh8.5 billion was slashed.
The president’s salary was capped at Ksh1.44 million from Ksh1.65 million which he earned in his first term.
Deputy President William Ruto has been earning Ksh1.23 million from Ksh1.4 million he earned in his first term.
SRC’s attempt to lower MPs salaries to Ksh621,250 from KSh710, 000 hit a snag following a petition in court.
SRC instituted the pay cuts in a bid to reduce spending on civil servants whose salaries gobble up 50 percent of the country’s revenues.