Union of Kenya Civil Servants Secretary General Tom Odege says the government pledged to pay the long overdue hardship allowances effective July 2010 in the 2012/2013 financial year and also to harmonize house allowances for all members to be paid effective July 2012.
“The government needs to fulfil the promises made to the members of the union in the delegates’ conference held in December last year in Eldoret be met in this year’s budget,” Odege said.
Odege said that the civil servants will not accept any more empty promises from the government.
He urged President Uhuru Kenyatta to set up a ministry to manage affairs of civil servants pointing out that they do not feel secure in under devolution and planning ministry which they are currently in.
He also asked the government to permanently employ over 5000 staff who were working across the country in the Economic Stimulus Program on a three year contract basis.
“The Economic Stimulus programme staff currently being affected are from the Health, Fisheries, Livestock and Agriculture Ministries, who have worked for the government for the last three years and they have effectively demonstrated that there are vacancies,” he observed.
This comes days after the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) went on strike over governments’ failure to honour promises made to them in 1997.
The government insists that the ongoing teachers strike is illegal because the deal KNUT signed with the government in 1997 was repealed.