Major divide on Uhuru’s 18 percent workers’ pay rise

Timothy Bosire
Kitutu Masaba MP

The President's announcement of 18 per cent pay rise to low income earners is political gimmick by Jubilee administration to hoodwink voters to give them another five-year term.
The main problem in this country is on the side of production, poor leadership and poor strategy towards growing our economy.
If we address these areas, we will be managing supply and the prices. If we produce enough food, prices will come down naturally on the principal of supply and demand.
It is all about poor leadership, poor management of public resources by the Jubilee administration. They have succeeded in embezzling public resources through non-priority projects that have only help to create instant billionaires at the top leadership.
But if you play around with the people's mind that you have given them a pay rise of Sh1000 or Sh2000 and production continue to shrink and prices going up then you are doing nothing.
Of what economic value does Sh2000 pay rise have when prices of basic commodities like milk, sugar and unga going up three times?
I can now conclude that most of what Jubilee is doing in the run up to the August General Election is a package of political mischief to confuse the minds of Kenyans because they have also realised their failure.
They have done everything wrong since they took power. We were at about 1.6 trillion debt now we are at Sh4 trillion but people can't feel how the borrowed money has been spent.
They are holding onto on everything as they attempt to hoodwink Kenyans that they are responsible.
It indicates the desperation by the ruling party since it has dawned to them that the National Super Alliance (NASA) is about to send them home and rescue Kenyans from the biting economic times.

Ababu Namwamba
Budalang'i MP/Labour Party Leader

The 18 per cent pay rise to low income earners is a progressive move that I fully support since it is intended to protecting and promoting the interest of Kenyan workers.
I would urge everybody who cares about the welfare of the low income workers to support this move.
Whether it is an election year people don't stop eating. They want the government of the day to address their welfare. We must stop this habit of politicizing everything because after all workers expect something from the government every time they mark Labour Day.
In fact, government must adopt a policy measure of progressive substantive salary rise to the low income earners for the next five years so that we can bridge the gap between low income earners and high end earners considerably.
The gap between low income earners and high end earners in our country is just immoral. It has made Kenya one of the most an equal society in the world. A few people are earning insane salaries while others are struggling with meagre earnings.
We must also stop politicizing the high cost of living. There is global recession, which has been caused by poor weather condition that has affected food production all over.
The cost of Unga (Maize floor) is not a uniquely Kenyan problem. It is a problem in Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda; it is actually a global problem. So we must look at all these issues in a broader context because to then want to reduce it to a Kenyan problem is to completely miss the point.
Normally when there is a recession like this, sensitive governments take a pro-people measure that can lessen the impact of the economic problem.
The decision to zero rate maize is one policy measure in that direction. The Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich last month announced this measure, which to me was a bold move.
But what people want to see those policy measures implemented for them to buy basic commodities at affordable prices. They want to see deliberate efforts to transfer the benefits to the common consumer otherwise they will remain as public relations stunts.