Sunday, June 23, 2013

Is it end of the honeymoon for Uhuru's Jubilee government?

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Updated Sunday, June 23rd 2013 at 11:49 GMT +3
BY JACOB NGETICH
NAIROBI, KENYA: A restless  Senate and National ssembly , insecurity , ballooning wage bill and industrial unrest are some of the challenges conspiring to cut short the Jubilee go vernment ’s honeymoon.
Two and half months after it came to power, the Government has begun to encounter turbulent times in govening the country.
The Senate recently launched a political and legal battle that might leave the Executive with a bad face as they fight for the‘survival of devolution’.
The Senate led a case at the Supreme Court to seek advice on the Division of Revenue Act, which was assented to by President Kenyatta. In the application ?led by Speaker Ekwee Ethuro through lawyers Pheroze Nowrojee and Kioko Kilukumi, the House wants the court to deter mine whether the passing of the Bill complied with all
The constitutional procedures go verning Bills concerning county governments.
This comes immediately after the National Assembly, which had held the Government hostage over their salary increment demand, backed off after they won in an agreement brokered by the Deputy President William Ruto.
The MPs had threatened to give tax exemptions to different groups of Kenyans in what might have significantly reduced by more than half the Go vernment revenue.
And while the security situation continues to deter ior ate in parts of the country, the Government is struggling with the ballooning wage bill, as differ ent groups demand for more pay and allowances. Hire teacher s The State got its first
Dose of strike on Tuesday, when the secondary teachers do wned their tools in what might open a floodgate for others including their counterparts in primary school who have already threatened to boycott classes next week.
Nurses at Kenyatta National Hospital, Nairobi who were on a go-slow last week resumed work after the Government promised to address their demands.
The 40,000-member Kenya union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) kicked off their strike for the secondary school teachers calling for the harmonisation of their salaries with other civil servants. Kuppet national chairman Omboka Milemba said all secondary school teachers are under instructions to stay away from class until they get further directives from the union.
"Our teachers will stay away from the classes because this is the language the Go vernment understands better, we will only call off the strike once we get our part of the bargain. We want those who educate our children to be comfortable in their work,” said Mr Milemba.
Knut national chair man Wilson Sossion has also war ned that they will go on a ‘Father ’ of all strikes if the Government does not honour teachers’ Allowances they were awarded in1997.
Mr Sossion said Knut had demanded budgetary allocation to the Ministry of Education to be increased by Sh49billion to allow hiring of more than 40,000 teachers.
"If the Government can get Sh75 billion for laptops, It can manage further allocations  of Sh 49Billion we demanded. We need Sh15 billion to hire 40,000 teachers,” added Sossion.
The civil servants under the Federation of Public Service Trade Unions of Kenya have also threatened to do wn their tools over pay.
Faced with the numerous demands , the PresidentUhuru Kenyatta and his Deputy William Ruto have been forced to initiate dialogue with different groups that have asked for more pay . The Head of State has on several occasions raised concernover the ballooning wage bill.
He has called for prudent management of public finances by officers serving in the Executive, Parliament and the Judiciary, saying the current wage bill is unsustainable .
"We must struggle to check and keep the public wage bill do wn, the country today has recurrent expenditure that has reached unsustainable levels and it is hurting resources that we could use to develop."
Wa ge bill The President said in the current financial year the total estimated wage bill is Sh458 billion which is slightly over 12 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product and well above the inter national accepted standard of 7 per cent.
Meanwhile, Senators have declared war on ‘enemies of devolution ’and have begun a countrywide civic education campaign on the need to defend devolution.
They are seeking court interpretation on whether the Division of Revenue Act, 2013 is unconstitutional.
The Senators want the court to tell them whether the National Assembly’s rejection of amendments passed by the Senate on the Bill and their sending it to the President for assent is legal.
While in Turkana in the presence of the Mr Ruto, during the homecoming party of Senate Speaker, The Senators did not mince their words and vowed to soldier on with the devolution campaign.
Though The Deputy President scoffed at the Senators Supreme Court case, the16 leaders present insisted that they would push on with their plans to protect devolution.

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