Treasury Injects Ksh 810 Million To Posta Kenya For Salary Arrears

Kevin Namunwa | Sep 22, 2020

It is going to be a relief for Posta Kenya workers after the National Treasury has approved a Ksh 810 Million injection to settle salaries.

The workers, who have gone for six months without pay, had petitioned the National Assembly through the departmental committee on Information, Communication, and Technology to probe the corporation’s failure to pay salaries.

They had also requested that the National Assembly recommends that the ICT Cabinet Secretary to initiate the process that could rescue the Postal Corporation of Kenya (PCK) from its current financial situation.

The workers’ cries were finally answered as the Treasury Principal Secretary Esther Koimett told the parliamentary committee on Labour that the ministry had allocated Sh810 million to PCK, after a request from the ICT ministry earlier this month.

“The ministry (ICT) wrote to Treasury seeking the funds as a short-term solution.

The Sh810 million will be used to settle salary arrears for the six months,” Ms Koimett said.

Posta has not paid its over 2,000 employees since March, saying since the onset of Covid-19, its revenues dwindled to nearly nothing.

“PCK gets cash from its operations and not from Treasury budgets, the corporation plans its own budget. When Covid-19 came and international flights were halted, its revenues went down to almost zero and so it could not pay workers,” ICT CS Joe Mucheru told the committee.

The bailout from Treasury comes even as the two ministries insist that the corporation cannot continue to operate as a loss-making venture, signaling its restructuring.

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