By timothy Makoha

There are many things in life we do that smirk of stupidity. Take for instance a friend squatting with you, but who when called up to take a job with the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission as a researcher, declines the offer. This happened in 2007.

My friend had been eking out a measly living at one nondescript law firm in the city.

He had just been called to the Bar — as he was given to telling me — and he had a matching attitude to it.

Except for his beaten shoes, there was no telling he was going through a rough patch in life. He kept his spirits high, always dreaming of making it big.

And so when one morning a caller at the other end of the line identified herself as calling from Integrity Centre, we all knew my friend’s date with destiny had finally arrived. He had previously sat two interviews; with a word after the second interview that only successful candidates would be called.

It therefore came as a shocker when he said he would not be taking the job, and true to form, he meant every word he said. But it was the reason he gave for his decision that was even more disturbing.

He wouldn’t take up the job because he was not 10 times more stupid than the then Director Justice Aaron Ringera, who was forking Sh2.5 million a month. Even without volunteering the amount of money he had been awarded, from his hedonistic argument, we estimated it to be ten times less than that of the director — a tidy sum by any standards.

He may have been insincere because shortly thereafter, he was hired as a research assistant attached to one of the lawyers representing Kenya’s most celebrated con artist in a commission of inquiry that turned out more comical than investigative.

I did not forgive his folly then. I still don’t. Perhaps his argument would have remained irrelevant for long until a new report that indicated growing income inequality between the Chief Executives and the staffers introduced a new spin to it.

According to a recent PricewaterhouseCoopers National Human Resources Survey, the highest paid CEO earns Sh3.9 million a month. This is 414 times higher than the lowest paid employee — a room steward in the hospitality industry who takes home Sh9,450 a month.

According to the survey, the average pay for CEOs increased by 30.7 per cent since 2007, well above the annual average inflation rate of 22.68 per cent, while junior staff had their pay increased by 10.5 per cent to 12.18 per cent shy of matching inflation.

Unfortunately, this is just one face of the mosaic of inequality in Kenya. Another report, the Kenya Economic Report 2009 by the Kenya Institute for Public Policy

Research and Analysis (KIPPRA) painted a telling picture of inequality in the country.

According to the report, while people at the Coast could hardly live beyond 30, their counterparts in Meru are still streetwise in their 60s.