Gladys Boss, the deputy speaker of the national assembly, claims that Kenyans are more concerned with public servants' performance and service provision than with the portion of the national budget that goes toward paying their salaries.
President William Ruto informed the striking doctors that the government could not meet their demands and that the nation was facing a massive wage bill.
Ruto stated last week that salaried Kenyans are responsible for lowering the country's wage bill, which is 47% of GDP compared to the suggested 35%.
The deputy speaker of the National Assembly contends that Kenyans are willing to pay for competent government services.
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“Kenyans don’t have a problem with employing people; what they have been demanding is performance, that is the challenge,” Boss told Citizen TV’s Daybreak program on Tuesday.
The former Judiciary Chief Registrar added; “My experience at the Judiciary is that people were frustrated by the amount of time court cases take. If you told a Kenyan whose matter has been in court for the last 10 years that their case will be heard in under a year if they pay more, they will be happy to pay.”
In Boss’ view, the solution would not be bringing down the wage bill but focusing on economic transformation to widen the tax base.
“We should be focusing more on economic transformation. If we have economic transformation as a country, we will be collecting more taxes and have more resources to pay for the workforce. It will be 35 per cent of a big amount,” she said.
Last week, President Ruto reaffirmed that the nation will not borrow money to cover salaries, and he added that all intern physicians would be hired on the terms the government has set forth.
Medics have been protesting the government's failure to post medical interns and to follow a 2017 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) on doctors' labor terms by downing tools on March 14.
As an alternative to the Ksh.206,000 stipulated in the 2017 CBA, the government has offered the medical interns Ksh.70,000.
