Most county employees reportedly earn less than one-third of what they should due to several deductions in contravention of Section 19(3) of the Employment Act 2007, The Weekly Vision has learnt.
Section 19(3) of the Employment Act, 2007 provides that, “without prejudice to any right of recovery of any debt due, and notwithstanding the provisions of any other written law, the total amount of all deductions that, under the provisions of subsection (1), may be made by an employer from the wages of his employee at any one time, shall not exceed two-thirds of such wages.”
For instance, in the coastal county of Mombasa, a review of the payroll revealed that 89 employees received net salaries, which were less than a third of their basic salaries, while in Nairobi, the County Executive made deductions and recoveries from employees’ salaries in excess of two-thirds of their basic pay. In some cases, employees remained with negative net pay, which may lead the affected staff members to engage in undesirable activities, resulting in a loss of funds for the county.
In Kisumu County, a review of the payrolls revealed that 154 employees earned net salaries less than a third of their basic pay. The same scenario was experienced in Lamu County, where 46 employees were paid a net salary that was less than one-third of their respective basic salaries.
In Garissa County, for 12 months from July 2021 to June 2022, 525 members of staff received net salaries that were less than a third of their basic pay, while in Mandera County, analysis of the IPPD system data for 2021–2022, revealed that 3 employees were being paid net salaries that were less than a third of their respective basic pay during the year, thus overcommitting their salaries.
In Tharaka Nithi County, 484 employees earned a net salary of less than a third of the basic salary, while in Embu County, a review of the payroll for the financial year ended June 30, 2022, revealed that the County Executive had 189 employees whose net pay was below a third of their basic pay. In addition, 5 out of the 189 employees had committed over and above their total earnings, leaving them with negative net pay.
In Kitui County, analysis of the payrolls for April 2022 and July 2021, respectively, showed that a total of 25 employees drew net salaries that were below one-third of their basic pay.
In Makueni County, a review of payroll records revealed that during June 2022, a total of 86 employees of the County Executive earned net pay below a third of their basic pay, while in Nyandarua County, analysis of sampled staff from the payroll revealed that 977 employees earned less than one-third of their basic salaries in different months of the financial year.
In Muranga County, a review of the June 2022 payroll reflects that 64 members of staff were paid net salaries below a third of their basic pay, while in Kiambu County, 2248 employees were paid a net salary that was less than a third of their basic pay.
