Despite the threats arising from terrorism, which leads to deployment in dangerous areas, soldiers only get Sh600 as risk allowance, it has emerged.
The soldiers, in a number of circumstances, also have to meet their travel costs when in areas categorised as hardship, the Nation said in a report o Sunday
“A soldier gets a monthly hardship allowance of Sh600, translating to Sh20 daily,” the Sunday Nation said.
This is because the allowance has never been reviewed since it came into effect in 1978.
Having gotten to power, President Daniel Moi formed the Armed Forces Pay Review Board (AFPRB) on December 14, 1978.
The board was tasked with reviewing pay, allowances and fringe benefits for all ranks of the military and others under the Defence Council.
Such reviews were to be undertaken every four years or any time the President considered them necessary.
“The pay scale is dependent on the cost of living, comparison with remuneration of other jobs in relevant sectors, budgetary considerations, wage guidelines and the strength of the economy. Following a rise in the cost of living, it was expected that the allowances and fringe benefits would be reviewed in the early 1990s. It never happened,” Nyambega Gisesa writes.
The report on the AFPRB presented to President Moi in January 1993 recommended that the hardship allowance be paid to officers posted to specified hardship areas.
“It is paid at the rate of 30 per cent of an officer’s basic annual salary to a maximum of Sh1,200 per month for married officers and Sh600 per month for singles,” the report read in part.
While making its recommendations in 1992, the AFPRB said it had considered “the rationale and basis of paying this allowance and finds the arrangement satisfactory”, Gisesa said.
When soldiers’ salaries were increased and accommodation allowance regularised in 2015, other allowances and fringe benefits were not put into consideration.
It is on this background that new Chief of Defence Forces Robert Kibochi has promised to relook at the risk and hardship allowances.
