In 2017 High Court Judge Antony Mrima ruled that the creation of the office of Chief Administrative Secretary (CAS) was unconstitutional. Justice Mrima ruled that cabinet secretaries who continued to serve without being vetted are in office illegally. He added that any permanent secretary not competitively recruited by the Public Service Commission (PSC) is in office illegally.

The judge argued that there was no public participation in the decision to introduce CASs as assistants to cabinet secretaries.

On January 26, 2018, President Uhuru Kenyatta announced the creation of the CAS position in every ministry.

“I have decided to establish a new position in government, the position of Chief Administrative Secretary in all our ministries. The Chief Administrative Secretary would broadly be responsible for helping the Cabinet Secretary to better coordinate the running of the affairs of their respective ministries,” he said.

The public wage bill crossed the half-a-trillion mark for the first time in the year ended June, new data shows, exerting huge pressure on the country’s thinned revenue envelope. 

H.E President William Ruto, in his inaugural address to Parliament, instructed ministries to significantly slash their budgets

“Our financial situation is not very good. Over the past decade we have sought to close this (financing) gap with public borrowing. This year alone we budgeted to borrow Sh900 billion to budget both development and recurrent expenditure,” said Dr Ruto

SRC data shows civil servants are paid some 247 different allowances, which account to 48 per cent of the total wage bill.

We call upon:

1. The adherence to reducing the bloated public wage bill by the Salaries and Remuneration commission (SRC) which stands at a record Sh520.03 billion, increasing by Sh27 billion from Sh493.03 billion in the previous year.
2. The Public Service Commission (PSC), The Auditor General, The Ministry of Finance and the Office of the President to save the taxpayer from being burdened by adding the CAS’s to the already burgeoning public payroll.

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