UKCS threaten to down tools over house allowance payment

Civil servants have given the Government until February 15 to pay them house allowances or face a strike.

Union of Kenya Civil Servants (UKCS) Secretary General Tom Odege (pictured) yesterday accused the Government of failing to honour a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) on house allowance.

“We have been waiting since July last year for the Government to implement part of the CBA that we signed on our members' house allowances. We are growing impatient with this Government. We will no longer bargain but move to the streets or court," said Mr Odege.

The official, who was speaking after the union's National Executive Council held a closed-door meeting in Nairobi to discuss woes affecting their members, warned that it would not be "business as usual".

Odege said the only option open to them, if the allowances were not paid, was to call upon all members to stage street protests "because they fear the courts can be manipulated".

The secretary general also asked county governments to expedite payment of salaries of their members. He said it was a matter of concern when civil servants' salaries were delayed for months.

Odege singled out Homa Bay, which he said, had not paid its employees' salaries since November last year.

“We are giving them until February 15 to pay our members their accrued salaries. Our members are really suffering because banks and saccos have refused to give them loans because they don’t have salaries," he said.

The union official also accused the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) of failing to meet members' obligations, saying they were not getting value for money.

NHIF, he said, had failed to give the union medical scheme utilisation reports each quarter, and also failed to disclose how much of members' statutory deductions were going towards complementing the Sh4 billion cover.