By Luke Anami
Civil servants working in 25 divisions formerly classified as hardship areas will no longer earn hardship allowances, following degazettement of their special status.
Also affected are more than 90,000 teachers, who earned higher allowances compared to other civil servants, working in the same areas.
The rest of civil servants will, however, be paid a uniform hardship allowance following Government decision to harmonise hardship allowances .
"Civil servants will no longer be paid hardship allowances based on the percentage of their salary," Public Service Minister Dalmas Otieno said on Wednesday.
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The minister announced the degazettement of 25 divisions as hardship areas.
"Instead, all hardship areas have been harmonised for all public servants and allowance will now be based on the classification of the hardship area irrespective of job group or marital status."
Sixty divisions
Dalmas announced more than 60 divisions have been designated as moderate while 17 are extreme hardship areas.
Civil servants posted to the said areas will be entitled to a uniform hardship allowance based on the hardshipness of the region and not their salary.
Citing the Teachers Service Commission, which has 38 areas gazetted as hardship compared to the rest of the Public Service including the Forces, which have 15, the minister said the situation is a source of discontent.
"Some civil servants are being paid hardship allowance at the rate of 30 per cent of basic salary subject to a maximum of Sh1,200 a month for married officers and Sh600 for single officers," he said.
Due to the disparities in the payment of hardship allowance, public servants earning higher allowances view them as a salary supplement and not partial compensation for deployment in the hardship areas.
Low rates
Other public servants earning low rates, who do not consider the rates of the allowance as commensurate with the level of hardship in the area, view their posting as punitive.
"As a result, the payment of hardship allowance has become a major source of discontent among civil servants due to the differences in total salary package," Dalmas said.
"This has contributed to resistance to postings to areas designated as hardship with consequent negative impact on service delivery and staff retention," he added.
The move will see the budget for payment of hardship allowances increase by Sh500 million, pushing the ministry’s budget from Sh5.2 billion to Sh5.7 billion a year.
"All civil servants in areas designated as ‘moderate’ will be paid Sh 5,000 a month," Dalmas announced at a press conference at Harambee House.
"While those designated as ‘extreme’ will be paid a flat rate figure of Sh10,000 a month."
While degazetting the areas, the Government considered various factors such as availability and accessibility of food, potable water, and social services and amenities.
The divisions include Kakuzi, Makuyu, Kieni East and West divisions in Central Province.
In Eastern Province the divisions degazetted are Mbooni, Kilungu, Kaiti, and Kilome.
Rift Valley has the highest number of divisions no longer designated as hardship areas. These include Ngong in Kajiado North and Fort Ternan-Muhoroni in Ainamoi.
Four divisions in Kilgoris affected by the minister’s move are Kirdon, Keiyan, Puirra and Kilgoris. Kapsowar, Kapcherop and Chebiemit in Marakwet West. Tirap and Kabiengo in Marakwet top the list from the Rift Valley. Nyanza Province’s divisions degazetted include Miwani, Nyando, Upper and Lower Nyakach and Sondu divisions.
"The objective of paying allowance was to partially compensate public servants working in areas designated as hardship for lack of basic social services and amenities, risk, isolation and family separation," Dalmas explained. The minister said the different areas have since been classified as hardship for various public service organizations, thereby creating disparities.
He was accompanied by officials from the Union of Kenya Civil Servants led by secretary general Tom Odeke. The minister said the Government would harmonise terms and conditions of service for civil servants to achieve a marked improvement in remuneration.
