County Executive Committee members, (CECs), now want their salaries and remunerations reviewed upwards as it happened to county Speakers.
The officers under the CEC national caucus have now petitioned the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) to urgently address this as the cadre had been forgotten in salary review since 2013.
Already, the SRC has backed the move to grant MCAs car grants despite opposition from various quarters over the millions required to implement this.
The move to grant the MCAs the grants seems to have opened a can of worms with the executive officers noting that they deserved better perks just like the elected leaders.
This emerged during a meeting in Lake Naivasha Country Club where new interim officers were elected into office and mandated to engage the SRC.
Addressing the press, the caucus interim chairman, Hesmond Onsarigo noted that when devolution started working in 2013, they were on the same level as county speakers.
He added that with time, the Speakers perks had been raised while that of the CECs had remained stagnant despite both being in the same job group.
“We have engaged our governors who fully back us and we shall petition the Salaries and Remuneration Commission to also address our case,” he said.
The Kisii agriculture CEC noted that the situation had been worsened by some counties reviewing the salaries of their staff while others had been left behind.
“We want our salaries and allowances harmonized as some CECs are paid than others despite performing the same work,” he said.
Onsarigo was optimistic that their case would be resolved by the commission adding that they did not have any intention of seeking legal redress.
“We are State officers who don’t believe in strikes and court cases and we are sure that dialogue with SRC will help resolve the current impasse,” he said.
He added the county officers played a crucial role in implementing national and county government projects and were keen to make sure that the Big Four Agenda was achieved.
A member of the caucus Juma Aguko from Homa Bay county noted that the previous officer bearers were not productive adding that they had faith in the new team.
Aguko added that plans to engage SRC last year were thwarted by the Covid-19 pandemic which saw meetings banned and several government officers closed down.
“We have faith in this new team and we are confident that the salaries commission will listen to our concerns and address them,” he said.