To cut wage bill, overlapping state positions must be merged

I have been following with amazement Moses Kuria‘s comments about reducing the wage bill by reducing the number of counties from 47 to 16. Mwingi Central‘s Joe Mutambu has also tabled a Constitutional Amendment Bill in Parliament proposing to reduce counties to 25.

Whereas some of these proposals are plausible, they may not attract the support required to sail through. But there are more pragmatic ways of reducing the ballooning wage bill.

First, we need to reduce the many positions created under the constitution. Merging constitutional commissions into departments within the larger commission should be our first try.

Secondly, we can do away wipositions like the county public service boards, reduce wards and do away with nominated seats.

Lastly, we should have a discussion on whether we need a weak Senate or have its roles played by the National assembly and other state organs.

These, and checking corruption, should bring the wage bill down to acceptable levels.