Kenya Magistrates and Judges Association (KMJA) has filed an application in the labor court protesting the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) decision to put them in the same job grade as MCAs.
The Magistrates want the SRC to review their salaries upwards claiming they do more work than the MCAs.
Despite academic qualifications for an MCA being far below that of a magistrate, the legislators earn more.
“That notwithstanding, MCAs earn an amount for higher bands like the principal magistrate including earning allowances for sitting in committees and assembly sessions whereas resident magistrates, in the same bands, earn less than this and do not earn sitting allowances,” KMJA stated in court papers.
According to KMJA, the job of a magistrate is full time while that of an MCA or MP is regarded to be part-time. Thus the judicial officers are prohibited from getting any other gainful employment, unlike the MCAs or MP.
“Despite this glaring evidence against the order of logic, the SRC has remunerated part-time State officers such as MPs and MCAs better than full-time judicial officers,” read the court papers.
KMJA argues that the kind of work undertaken by the Magistrates and Kadhis is the same as that of Judges and that they handle more risky cases like robbery with violence.
However, SRC has failed to provide them with security for them while MPs and MCAs have all the security.
Further, KMJA claimed that judicial officers were expected to hear cases from 8am to 5pm, yet at the same time, they have to render decisions which they are expected to research on before writing them.
“The time for doing this is not provided for in law. This, therefore, condemns judicial officers to research, draft and write rulings and judgments during their own private time, at night, during annual leave and during weekends as well as in between breaks during workshops, seminars, and conferences,” KMJA says.
The magistrates say that they should either be provided with official transport or given car grants and not car loans.
