Six leaders willing to take a salary cut to pay teachers
The debate over the teachers’s strike has taken a new twist with elected leaders now proposing that state officers take a pay cut as a way of generating funds to pay off teachers.
The government’s insistence that it has no money to pay a 50 to 60 per cent salary increment for teachers has been met with mixed reactions.
Here are six elected leaders who have so far stated their readiness to take a pay cut.
1. Budalangi MP Ababu Namwamba
The ODM legislator on Monday filed a motion with the speaker of the National Assembly to have all members take a 50 per cent pay cut alongside the executive, judiciary and constitutional commissions.
2. Nairobi Senator Mike Sonko
The flamboyant senator has expressed his intention to file a motion similar to that of Mr Namwamba to have all senators take a 50 per cent pay cut.
3. Siaya Senator James Orengo
The senator declared his willingess during the burial of Senator Sonko’s father last week, stating that if pay cuts were the only way to raise the required amount to pay teachers he would be willing to lead the pack.
4. Bungoma Senator Moses Wetangula
The opposition leader and Cord co-principal also stated the same last week at Senator Sonko’s father funeral last week.
5. Governor William Kabogo
The Kiambu County governor during the same funeral stated that legislators ought to resume sittings to debate the teachers’ salaries even if it means proposing a pay cut among all elected leaders.
6. Kisumu MCA Edwin Anayo
The Market/Milimani ward representative and leader of minority wrote a letter to the county assembly’s interim speaker on Monday stating that he wanted to donate 35 per cent of his salary to the teacher’s kitty effective this month.