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Pay judges from private practice Sh100,000 more, SRC ordered
Thursday December 17 2020
By SAM KIPLAGAT
Summary
The court had heard that judges who were hired from private practice were paid a starting basic salary of Sh532,500 per month and a non-practising allowance of Sh13,500 while those promoted from magistrates started with a pay of Sh632,000 and a non-practising allowance of Sh13,500.
Justice Odunga noted that judges recruited from within or outside the Judiciary perform similar tasks and by failing to harmonise their remuneration, the SRC had abdicated its constitutional and statutory mandate.
The High Court has ordered the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) to increase salaries of judges appointed from outside the Judiciary by at least Sh100,000 in compliance with a decision made in December last year.
THE STANDARD
NAIROBI
Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) Chair Lyn Mengich. [File, Standard]
Judges who were appointed from private practice are still earning salaries that are lower than their counterparts who were promoted from within the Judiciary. Judicial Service Commission (JSC) and Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC), have disobeyed court orders requiring them to march the salaries of judges.
On December 18 last year, Justice George Odunga ordered the commission to harmonise salaries of all the affected judges and backdate the same to the date each was appointed.
Justice Odunga has again ordered JSC and SRC to honour the court orders after finding that the aggrieved judges who sued through an activist Sollo Nzuki had a legitimate claim to warrant the court to force the two commissions to act.