Thursday, May 2, 2024 – President William Ruto has disappointed workers despite setting the ball in motion in an effort to increase the country's minimum wage, two years since his predecessor Uhuru Kenyatta made the raise.
Addressing attendees of the Labour Day Celebrations at Uhuru
Gardens, the Head of State directed Labour Cabinet Secretary Florence Bore to
convene a council and begin the discussions.
Ruto categorically asked Bore to ensure that the committee
arrived at a decision that would see the minimum wage increased by a minimum of
a paltry 6 per cent.
"I direct our labour CS to convene the committee
concerned and have a meeting so that we increase the minimum wage by a minimum
6 per cent and you should tell me how the maths will be done."
"We shall then discuss how the matter will progress
forward," Ruto stated.
The council consists of representatives from
the Central Organisation of Trade Unions-Kenya (COTU) headed by Francis
Atwoli, the Federation of Kenya Employers, and the government among others.
The country's bottom-of-the-food chain workers last saw
their payslips upgraded in 2022 when President Uhuru Kenyatta increased the
minimum wage by a whole 12 per cent.
In 2022, the minimum wage rose from 13,500 Kenyan shillings
to Ksh15,120 shillings which stayed constant ever since.
After the deliberations, the lowest-earning Kenyan
worker will be expected to pocket a Ksh16,027 monthly salary.
At the same time, Ruto insisted that the government will not
revise upward salaries demanded by intern doctors insisting that the Ksh70,000
remains on offer and that they should go back to work.
He argued that the government had met 17 of their 19
demands, maintaining that the state couldn't meet all their demands.
The Kenyan DAILY POST
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