As Kenya struggles to contain a ballooning public wage bill, the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) is seeking approval to spend Ksh80 million on a National Productivity and Performance Conference.
The request was tabled on Friday at the 29th sitting of the Intergovernmental Budget and Economic Council (IBEC), which took place at Deputy President Kithure Kindiki’s official residence in Karen, Nairobi.
SRC says the conference, planned for May 2026, will help address the growing gap between government spending on salaries and the revenue collected. The public wage bill stood at 43.3 per cent of ordinary revenue in the 2023/2024 financial year and is projected at 40.4 per cent in 2024/2025. This remains above the 35 per cent target set for 2028.
Out of the proposed Ksh 80 million budget, Ksh 65 million will go towards organising the conference. The funds will cover venue hire, hospitality, logistics, delegate services, branding and communication, preparatory meetings and retreats, programme delivery through a digital platform, documentation and media coverage.
Another Ksh 15 million has been allocated for the National Productivity and Performance Awards. This amount will cater for planning meetings and procurement of awards.
The conference is expected to bring together about 4,000 participants drawn from national and county governments, the private sector, civil society, academia, professional bodies and development partners.
SRC Chairperson Sammy Chepkwony defended the proposal, saying the event is meant to link productivity with revenue growth and long-term wage bill control.
“The conference will present a strategic platform for linking public service productivity with revenue generation and wage bill sustainability and propose national strategies to support the establishment of a National Productivity Index, strengthen performance contracting, and align remuneration policies with institutional outcomes,” he said.
Chepkwony added that wage bill sustainability cannot be achieved through cuts alone.
“It will foster engagements cognizant of the fact that wage bill sustainability may not be achieved solely through expenditure cuts, but by investing in a public service that delivers higher returns through higher revenue collection, greater responsiveness and effective service delivery at both National and County levels,” he said.
SRC warned that unless labour productivity improves, wage bill growth will continue to outpace revenue collection.
The commission blamed the slow progress on structural challenges such as the rising number of public servants, duplicated roles across institutions, weak payroll controls and wage demands that are not tied to productivity levels.
It also noted that labour productivity in the private sector is more than three times higher than in the public sector, with the gap continuing to widen.
As part of its recommendations, SRC asked IBEC to support labour productivity improvement as a key strategy to manage the wage bill. It also sought approval to request the Ksh 80 million from the National Treasury to hold the conference.
In addition, the commission called for faster staff rationalisation, removal of duplicated functions and full migration of government payrolls to a unified human resource information system.
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