Civil servants will have to tighten their belts further, as the government has no plans to review their salaries anytime soon, despite the harsh economic conditions.
According to the Public Service Commission (PSC), the global financial crisis has impacted the country’s economy, resulting in stagnated salaries for government workers.
This came even as the commission identified economic challenges as a major contributor to the rising cases of mental health issues among government employees.
PSC Vice-Chairperson Mary Kimonye stated that salary reviews are dependent on the country’s revenue collection. She pointed out that, due to the ongoing global financial crunch, the economy is underperforming, and Kenyans should brace for more difficult times ahead.
“So long as the economy is not growing at the rate that we want it to grow, even the agitation for higher salaries just becomes an agitation,” she said.
Kimonye was addressing the press at the sidelines of the sixth women in HR convention in Naivasha organized by the Institute of Human Resource Management (IHRM).
She at the same time admitted that the number of women in the public service was low at 38 percent compared to that of men at 62 percent, adding that the government was addressing this.
“We have to ensure at any one time that the government and the public service is manned by people with the right skills, the right attitude and the right competencies,” she said.
On mental health, she said that the government was working on early detection with mental champions appointed in every government department.
“There’s a time we had even very many suicides especially with the police force and the government has put in place mechanism to deal with mental health,” she said.
On her part, IHRM Executive Director Quresha Abddullahi noted that despite the high number of women as HR practitioners, the number of women in senior positions remained low.
She said the convention would take advantage of the policies and the legal instruments that are there to make workplaces better and bring more women into the leadership roles
“As per statistics, there may be more women within our nation, but when you look at the jobs they have, it’s on the lower cadres,” she said.
IHRM vice-chair Beatrice Bii said that they were committed to promoting diversity and women’s leadership within the HR profession.
“Our advocacy efforts to raise the profile of the HR profession in Kenya are bearing fruit and we are now represented in numerous institutions, including independent commissions and selection panels,” she said.
