The CIC may be right, but they are wrong!

When Francis Muthaura, the head of the Civil Service, picked a fight with the Commission for the Implementation of the Constitution over their terms and conditions of service, a debate should have been opened about the unfair system that is in place where an elite in the public service is offered terms that compare rather well with those of top-tier managers in the private sector while the vast majority of public officers suffer poor terms and conditions. Dr Elizabeth Muli, the Vice-Chairman of the Commission is undoubtedly right when she questions Ambassador Muthaura's motives or the constitutional basis for his directive, but she misses the point, as Members of Parliament have, regarding the need for all their pay and allowances to be taxed.

Prof Richard Leakey started the trend with his Dream Team in the late 1990s when he poached experienced managers from private practice and offered them similar or better terms to what they had been receiving and then unleashed them on the public service, jumping over more experienced officers who enjoyed less impressive terms. This set the ground for the government to regularly offer private sector managers similar fat terms at the expense of experienced and senior members of the public service. This may partly explain why some of them have engaged in acts of massive corruption over the past ten years, leading to mega-scandals such as Anglo-Leasing, Triton and the FPE scam. Many forget that these financial crimes could not have been committed without the active participation senior pubic officers; they are the only ones who would be able to identify the budget lines and the civil service guidelines for spiriting away the billions of shillings that have been stolen.

The establishment of the Salaries and Remuneration Commission cannot come soon enough. If, as advertised, it manages to harmonise the salaries and allowances of all public officers, and do away with the two-tier system, it will have wide-ranging ramifications on the administration of the country. Serving your government should not be an opportunity for enrichment or rent-seeking; it should be done out of a sense of duty. If you want to get rich, try your luck in the private sector. However, the terms and conditions of civil servants should be adequate to guarantee the essentials and pay for one or two luxuries. It is a sad commentary that some civil servants can afford to pay off their mortgages withing three years of employment while others usually serve for decades before they can say they are debt-free. It is time to abolish this unfair and unjust system, otherwise all the reforms in the world will not make the public service a better servant of the citizens of Kenya.