Hustlers are feeling left out as SRC hike state officers' salary

A woman runs past police police officers during Sabasaba demonstrations in Kisii town. [Sammy Omingo, Standard]

Arrogance of power creates a blinding fog of aristocratic privilege and cuts one's relationship with reality. When this happens to a detached and pampered ruling class, the welfare of the majority population is relegated to the gutters.

It is unbelievable that the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) has once again connived with the Executive in a scheme to award astronomical increase in salaries for top public servants to cushion them against the tough economic times facing millions of citizens.

The President, Deputy President, Cabinet Secretaries, Principal Secretaries, Attorney General, Director of Public Prosecution, Judges, Members of Parliament and senior civil servants are set for a pay raise.

The County Executive and MCAs will also get a salary boost of up to 14 per cent as the mwananchi is urged to tighten his/her belt. This is what Frantz Fanon refers to as a regime steeped in arrogance and shameless display of conspicuous consumption and opulence in the midst of increasing poverty.

How the SRC, an autonomous constitutional body charged with balancing the public wage bill against economic realities, arrived at a bizarre conclusion that it is time to reward the big boys, is a question of conjecture.

Yet, we know the SRC cannot put such a crazy proposal on the platform for public participation without some form of nod from the highest echelons of power.

President William Ruto's most pronounced policy statement is the Bottom Up Economic Agenda (BETA), which means empowering the masses at the base of society upward the economic ladder.

Now, before us is more than Sh2 billion to be shared at the top without the slightest regard for the hustlers. One would have expected the President to mobilised his entire government to walk the talk on his economic recovery strategy.

But again, besides overtaxing Kenyans and blaming the former government, we have not heard the President or any member of the regime articulate austerity measures to curb wastage.

Public finance is not a blank cheque at the exclusion and unilateral disposal of SRC and a gang of power barons. Patriotic integrity, meritocracy and equity is the pen with which SRC should sign any pay increase.

What the SRC is throwing out for public participation is robbery camouflaged in coat of arms. It goes a long way into giving credence to Azimio's call for tax boycotts. Mama Mboga is a mere footnote in this regime's game. I doubt whether Mboga will get fare back to school after the midterm.

In line with the Hustler Nation's high expectations, one would have expected to see deliberate steps at reducing the gulf between the rich and poor.

Paradoxically, under the watch of the "Hustler government" the level of inequality is worsening. Besides the Kibaki government, previous regimes have been parasitic and predatory. They have milked citizens without second thought. Yet, of them all, the Ruto administration seems, even at its early stages, could be the most predatory.

The writer is a former NCIC commissioner