Fat cats, at whose expense?

By OYUNGA PALA

I don’t know if you gleaned at the retirement perks that SRC (Salaries and Remuneration Commission) tried to justify as deserving for high ranked state officials. A cool 485 million a year may be reserved for a small bunch of guys to cushion their retirement. The perks include cars, domestic help, equipped offices, bodyguards and a diplomatic passport thrown in for good measure.

Someone in high office retires; taxpayers have to bear the burden of keeping them in comfort zone they are accustomed to — for the rest of their lives. It must be morally wrong to reduce senior government operatives down to the lives of ordinary citizens, not after their service to the nation.

Pension used to be a survival ration. Now it is an entitlement, an annual golden handshake courtesy of a clueless taxpayer. The regular worker on an iffy contract, held hostage by a dodgy employer focused on making the company bankrupt, the gap couldn’t be starker. Most Kenyans have resigned to the fact that, they are people more deserving than others thanks to some title they held. We now live in the era of fat cats, where public service is all about, ‘what’s in it for me?