Civil Servants in union brackets have a cause to smile after Public Service Cabinet Secretary Justin Muturi announced the government will effect phase two of their negotiated pay rise by the end of this month.
Muturi said the National Treasury released Sh1.5 billion to the State Department for Public Service to settle the second tranche of a Collective Bargaining Agreement already agreed on with the Union of Kenya Civil Servants (UKCS).
The CS moved fast to diffuse tension just a day after the UKCS Secretary General Tom Odege on Monday led his officials in announcing a strike threat by unionsable civil servants unless the CBA was settled by the end of September.
But Muturi on Monday invited UKCS officials, led by Odege, to his Harambee House office where he announced that there had been no dispute, just a delay, since the pay rise had already been authorised with concurrence by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission.
Said the Cabinet Secretary, “State Department for Public Service got Concurrence from the Salaries and Remuneration Commission to sign a Collective Bargaining Agreement with the Union of Kenya Civil Servants for the period 2021-2023 and within agreed parametres for the Financial Years 2023-2025 and 2024-2025.”
He said the second phase of implementation that was to commence in July, this year, had been released to hit the accounts of civil servants.
The UKCS team thanked the minister as they called off the strike threat.
Muturi also announced that the Public Service Ministry was in the process of intensifying availability of essential government services in all Huduma Centres across the country.
“We are going to upgrade delivery of all government services by making all Huduma Centres one-stop shops,” says the CS as he promised Kenyans unprecedented efficiency in public service.
