“Don’t Take A Pay Cut – Fire Somebody” Caroline Mutoko Advises The President

Kenyans have had mixed reactions over President Uhuru Kenyatta’s decision to take a pay of 20% of his salary, while his cabinet secretaries would take 10% and parastatal heads 20% in a bid to save the country’s growing wage bill.

From a HR perspective, my biggest question was if the employer has a right to cut your salary? And yes, under-performance will automatically get you a pay cut or get you fired.

But Radio presenter Caroline Mutoko of Kiss 100 Fm was not impressed with the president’s decision to take a pay-cut. Instead, she feels there is no need reduce the salaries of employees.

From an article published by The Star, This is what Caroline had to say to the president.

President Uhuru Kenyatta, unless you are already in ‘campaign mode’, I’m afraid I’m not impressed with your decision to take a pay-cut. If you were running a private corporation, that pay-cut would have gone immediately towards the bottom-line and improved your cost figures and your profit margin.

However, you’re not a private firm and your salary and that of your cabinet doesn’t begin to address the issues we are dealing with as a nation. If the cuts also trickled down to the rest of the astronomical government wage bill – then I would be impressed.

However, MPs are among the greediest people this nation knows, so your appeal to them to take a pay cut as well is nice, but you and I know they’ll play politics with the idea for two weeks to hoodwink the electorate and fall back on their usual position. Let’s be fair, this lot spent the better part of last week discussing flags and titles – do you see anything constructive coming out of them in a discussion about pay?

This move is beneath you and smirks of the sort of populists move some of your predecessors may have made in the past to “look good”. A pay cut for you and your cabinet is not what we need.

1. Keep the pay – Fire somebody and hire somebody who delivers real results for Kenyans. You have in your cabinet people who occupy space and tell tales.
People who will leave the docket you gave them worse off than they found it. People who think it’s okay to lie to you and the people of Kenya. People who spend their time coming up with 19th century ideas to fix 21st century problems. Hawa wesmake. Keep the pay – fire somebody. Give us people who deliver results no matter the cost.

2. Keep the pay – kill the corruption. The moment this lot who love the good life so long as they are not paying for it, take a pay-cut, the corruption machinery will go into overdrive so they can maintain their lavish lifestyles. Very few people appointed or elected to public office come to serve. Majority are there for what’s in it for them. They may agree on the pay-cut, but if they do, my blood will run cold because it means they found a way to supplement that 10 per cent through stealing.

3. Keep the pay – create an economic environment that flourishes so that we have jobs and food on our tables. The reason you may feel squeamish about what is earned by government employees including yourself is because you know there are many people across this nation who would take a job, any job at any pay, as long as they have the dignity of working and putting food on the table. Take care of the pillars that make the economic environment flourish. Make our dreams possible.
You’re not a magician you can’t make dreams come true, but you can make them possible. In May 2012 you told us “”Our party is one whose engine is oiled with the dreams of every Kenyan.” Okay, since you know that, keep the pay and help us realise our dreams.

4. Keep The Pay – enhance our security. We can’t continue to live in a country where the insecurity levels are so high they threaten even the little money we make. You and other highly paid public servants are assured of security all day, all night and so are your family members. We’re not. Shuffling cops around is all nice and dandy, but maybe paying the ones who actually work, equipping them and giving them a sense of pride and duty would really help create an environment that protects our economic investments and also attracts more.

5. Keep the pay – increase the real output from public service so that we can all feel the value of the money we pay. Public sector seems to have back tracked to the days before Kibaki. There was a momentum towards better with Kibaki. However, there seems to be no need whatsoever to impress this President by doing exemplary work.
Like I said, fire somebody. Anyone not performing needs to be sent home to rest. In a country of 41 millionaire Kenyans, they can be replaced. The issue is never really the pay, it’s value for money and I can assure you a lot of Kenyans are not getting value for money. I’ll take you back to May 2012 “The government cannot always solve the social problems inflicting the citizens but it can create an enabling environment for citizens.” Fanya hiyo.

6. Keep the pay – work! Uhuru your government is not working. My life is harder now than it was a year ago as we went to the polls. Let’s have less public grandstanding, less events to “make-believe” that there’s work being done and let’s work. Let’s have less chest-thumping about title and actually earn the titles you all so greatly want. The optimism I had as we went to the polls and inauguration day is all but gone.

I believe I speak for a good number of Kenyans who stood in the sun for insane hours on March 4, 2013 to vote when I say, I’m not impressed with the paycut move, I want to see work in progress. I want my life and livelihood to improve and I want to see a better Kenya.

My former co-host and I used to say, “something is happening in Kenya – look outside any window”. I can’t say that anymore. Uhuru, very little is happening and we are angry, sad, disappointed and that goes for those who love you to a fault and those who are indifferent to you.

Don’t take a pay-cut, don’t play politics with our lives and livelihoods, don’t mock us with this window dressing pay-cut fairytale. #Keepthepayandwork! Do the job we hired you to do – make our dreams possible.

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Source: The Star

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