File image of President William Ruto.
President William Ruto has asked the Public Service Commission to harmonize the salaries of Kenyan scientists to be at par with their regional colleagues.
Speaking during the unveiling of Gede National Monument as a UNESCO World Heritage Site at the National Museums of Kenya on Friday, Ruto said the departure of local scientists to foreign countries due to poor remuneration should not continue.
He directed the Head of Public Service Felix Koskei to work with the PSC and sort out the pay disparity.
“We are not paying our scientists as we should. Many of them are under the public service, and there is a need to relook their terms of service and salaries,” said Ruto.
He added: “I will get the Head of Public Service to identify a small team to assess what needs to be done so that we can match the remuneration of other scientists in our region.”
Gede was inscribed as Kenya’s eighth UNESCO Heritage Site in July 2024. Other inscribed UNESCO heritage sites in Kenya are the Lake Turkana National parks, Mt Kenya National Park and Forest, Lamu Old Town, Fort Jesus, Lake Bogoria, Thimlich Ohinga Archaeological Site, and the Mijikenda Kaya Forests.
The function on Friday was held 40 years since the discovery of the Turkana Boy, the most complete skeleton of the earliest human ancestor ever recovered.
President Ruto said the government would invest KSh1 billion to expand facilities at the Nairobi National Museum and Uhuru Gardens.
Additionally, he said the government will fence off and guard sites belonging to the National Museums of Kenya around the country, which are vulnerable to land grabbers.
During the function, United Kingdom High Commissioner to Kenya Neil Wigan handed over to the Kenya National Archives digital material from the colonial era, which had been kept in the British Archives. The material, which dates from 1907 to 1968, consists of 2, 658 files and over 300,000 images.
