It’s a life crafted and painted in red for civil servants in the group A
to L (lower of government job) ranks. They say pay slips just make them paper
tigers among the landlords and shopkeepers to whom they surrender all their
earnings before they start a fresh round of borrowing. They borrowing spree
goes round to the savings and credit groups for whom they are cash cows.
It’s common knowledge that the most down trodden government workers are the civil servants in those job groups.
Let’s take the case of Mr. Kennedy Were; a civil servant for close to 20
years survives on debts. A father of seven and also a parallel student at a
local university, Mr Were cannot meet the responsibilities of his family like
other Kenyans with similar qualifications who are employed in the private
sector.
He showed me his pay slip reflecting a net salary of ksh 15,088 and gave
me a breakdown of his financial obligations, from school fees to domestic
budget running to over ksh 100,000 per month.
Mr. were says civil servants earn a salary of ksh 7,466.In most
instances those working in the city or municipalities get a housing allowance
of ksh 2,300 which consigns them to the slums of Nairobi and peri-urban areas.
Mr. Were needs kshs 80, 000 to pay fees for his two children in secondary
school, and has to cough up another ksh 70,000 for those in primary and lower
classes. He is also paying his university fees of ksh 87,000 to try and improve
his career by attaining a degree in management. To date he is the Human
resource manager officer at the ministry of health. He is one of the Union of
Kenya civil servants calling for pay raise.
But for Mr. Were eating a tasty meal remains
impossible because cost –cutting means a diet of vegetables and githeri (maize
and beans) throughout the month.
This is the life of a civil servant in Kenya,
the government have year in increased the already heavy salaries of
politicians, but all this civil servants get is a promise day in day out. No
wonder in their offices in different governments offices all you will find is
there coats hanging on chairs and no one to serve you or they are so rude and
the only easy way out is for you to bribe them!
Bye, Evelyn
