Salaries and Renumeration Commission(SRC) adjusted housing allowances for civil servants therefore increasing their pay.
According to the new rates, Nairobi-based civil servants in job group K, for example, will now receive a Sh16,500 house allowance per month up, from Sh10,000.
Nairobi-based public officers in job group A – drivers, personal secretaries, cleaners and messengers – will receive Sh3,750 a month up from Sh3,000, an adjustment that is likely to disappoint many given that the amount still falls below the prevailing market rates by far.
In the review, the housing allowance for public officers living in all former major municipalities, including Mombasa, Kisumu, Nakuru, Nyeri, Eldoret, Thika, Kisii, Malindi and Kitale, will be the same. For example, civil servants in job group K based in the nine former municipalities will see the allowance rise to Sh12,000 up from Sh8,000. Their job group mates in other former municipalities will draw Sh5,800, an increase from Sh3,500.
Civil servants have been under pressure for housing amid surges in rental charges for both public and private sector-owned units.
The State Department for Housing, for example, raised rents on all government-owned houses by 10 per cent effective April 1, 2022. The state argued that there have been several reviews on house allowance for civil servants since 2001 yet the amounts they pay in rent have remained stagnant.
Meanwhile, the public officers will now receive uniform hardship allowance rates after the SRC abolished a system where such payouts were based on basic salary.
