Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 1223381,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1223381/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 201,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Nyatike, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Tom Odege",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "growth of the Public Service. Those are the right people to be vetted to head such an important organ. The current commissioners of the SRC, who only occupy those positions because of political rewards, will never understand what public service is. We will continue suffering and singing songs every day and public servants will never get what is rightfully theirs. I challenge Parliament today. As we prepare the budget to be read in June, we need to go an extra mile and ignore the SRC. We need to budget for salary increments for all public servants in the country. Let the SRC refuse to award the salary increase, but let us put it in the budget. I can tell you for sure that in July this year, we will encounter many strikes because life has become very unbearable for workers in the public service. Hon. Temporary Speaker, let us consider a typical example. The Government introduced a commuter allowance in the Public Service in 2012. That allowance has not been reviewed to date. If you want to know how much public servants are suffering in this country, go to Uhuru Park very early in the morning tomorrow. You will see public servants walking to work because they cannot afford bus fare. The house allowances paid to a majority of those people cannot allow them to stay near town. They must stay in Kayole. You cannot afford a bus from Kayole to your place of work in town or Community Area. You walk in the morning. That is how the Government is losing. If you must walk from Kayole, you must wake up at 5.00 a.m., so that you are in your office at 8.00 a.m. You bear all the risks on the road from Kayole to town because you want to protect your job. On reaching Community Area, you are tired. Since you slept on an empty stomach the previous night, you have to take a glass of water. You need another one or two hours to rest and recover before you start working. Who is losing? It is the Government. The Government is happy that people have reported to work, but they do not have the ability to work. They are tired. Those people will wait for tea at 10.00 a.m., they will have to put more sugar in it so that they can get more energy to push them until lunch time. After lunch time, whether you like it or not, those people are tired and they will sleep on the job. You see them at their work stations, but they do not deliver. It is important for Parliament to ensure that those people are remunerated accordingly and motivated to go and work. To do that, we must first fix the SRC. My recommendation is that we kick out the current SRC and participate as Parliament in determining who will sit on that Commission. We should ensure that people who are appointed to the SRC have a record in the Public Service. We should know their backgrounds. They should have worked in the Public Service and know how people suffer there. They should not be poached from outside. A banker knows nothing about the Public Service. You cannot bring a banker to chair a key organ like the SRC yet they have never worked in the Public Service. They do not know how people are suffering out there. The first cure is for us to kick out this team and then we participate in the recruitment of a new one. We must know their backgrounds. We must keep checks on them, so that they do not abuse their office. If the current commissioners have abused people out there, and they have the audacity to come and abuse parliamentarians, who else is remaining? They will be in charge of the country, not us. We must be in charge and make sure that people who work for Kenyans out there are motivated. We are currently talking about doctors at Kenyatta National Hospital. After the SRC refused to award them their CBA, do you expect those doctors to be motivated enough to serve our people? They will suffer. Those are the people who are treating us out there. Do not forget that the most disadvantaged people are the watchdogs like Members of Parliament. If Members of Parliament are suffering, who will fight for Kenyans out there? Nobody. It is high time that we stood up as Parliament. Everybody should know that we have the responsibility of fixing all departments in the Republic of Kenya and enabling Kenyans to reap the fruits of their sweat. Thank you. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}