Transfer to Turkana just to earn Sh4 hardship allowance

Overcrowded commuter bus, 1991. [File, Standard]

It's interesting what a daily allowance of Sh4 can do to a broke clerical officer. Though it may not sound like much today, such an offer motivated a middle level civil servant to beg for a transfer from Voi to the harsh Turkana, more than 1,000 kilometres away.

Today, as the new Cabinet Secretary for Public Service and Gender, Aisha Jumwa mulls on how to increase salaries of civil servants, she may be motivated to make a quick decision by the travails of one clerical officer who once worked near her home county in Kilifi 73 yeas ago.