|
|
Kenya: Salary Deduction Order Withdrawn
 |
 |
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
The Nation (Nairobi)
20 May 2008
Posted to the web 19 May 2008
Patrick Nzioka And Charles Wanyoro
Nairobi
A directive that part of civil servants' salaries be deducted to meet the cost of resettling internal refugees has been withdrawn.
The head of the Public Service, Mr Francis Muthaura, communicated the decision to stop the compulsory deductions to personnel officers in ministries on Friday.
Instead of the direct deductions, heads of departments have been asked to circulate forms to those willing to make contributions.
Union of Kenya Civil Servants secretary general Tom Odege confirmed that the directive was withdrawn on Friday.
Warn employer
"The decision to withdraw the money from the pay lips has been stopped. It seems the Government has now yielded to the mounting pressure not to force anyone to contribute," Mr Odege said by telephone.
He called on the personnel officers to communicate the decision to districts.
The decision comes as teachers in Meru South warned their employer, the Teachers Service Commission, against deducting anything from their salaries.
Knut executive secretary in the area, Mr Germano Nyaga, said the teachers should be consulted before the cash was deducted.
The teaching fraternity, he said, was sympathetic to the refugees but added that nobody should be forced to donate.
Speaking to the Nation by telephone, Mr Nyaga said many teachers suffered during the skirmishes and would be hard hit if they were forced to contribute.
Instead politicians should be asked to contribute because they actively contributed to the chaos, he stated.
"Teachers are poorly paid and struggle to make ends meet. The violence was incited by politicians and they should be made to give donations. If they could afford Sh1 million per plate during campaigns, why not now?" he asked.
Help victims
Before the fundraising last week, Mr Muthaura had written to all permanent secretaries asking them to seek contributions from staff towards the fund, which targets Sh30 billion to help victims of post-election violence.
It was feared that the deductions would be made directly from their salaries, a situation which the public servants said was not acceptable.
The letters specified the amount different grades of officers should pay. Judges, for example, were asked to contribute a minimum of Sh5,000 each towards the fund, while magistrates were to pay between Sh2,000 and Sh3,000.
|
Other Judiciary employees, like cooks and cleaners, were asked to pay Sh500 each. President Kibaki raised Sh457 million for victims of the violence which left more than 1,200 people dead.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright © 2008 The Nation. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | Subscribe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
