Kenya's Wealthy President To Take Pay Cut

[mr_anderson]

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has reportedly announced that he and Deputy President William Ruto will be taking a 20% pay cut while cabinet ministers’ salaries will be slashed by 10% in fresh efforts to cut down on the government’s ballooning public wage bill.
…
According to Kenyatta, the government is spending close to $4.6 billion every year in salaries, leaving only $2.3 billion for development; a ratio he said was unsustainable.

“We need to deal with this monster if we are to develop this nation otherwise sooner or later we will become a nation that only collects taxes to pay ourselves,” President Kenyatta said.

forbes.com/sites/mfonobongnsehe/2014/03/09/kenyas-wealthy-president-uhuru-kenyatta-to-take-pay-cut/

[macannrb]

Oh the irony! If only we thought similar things in Ireland!

[ex-Patrick]

@macannrb

Oh the irony! If only we thought similar things in Ireland!

Uhuru is the son of Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya’s first president, so they’ve got the family politics thing going in Kenya as well
Lot of money in that family; he won’t miss the 20% salary he’s forsaking.

[mr_anderson]

@ex-Patrick

@macannrb

Oh the irony! If only we thought similar things in Ireland!

Uhuru is the son of Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya’s first president, so they’ve got the family politics thing going in Kenya as well
Lot of money in that family; he won’t miss the 20% salary he’s forsaking.

Yes, but wealth wouldn’t stop an Irish gombeen politician from rejecting a pay cut.

My first thoughts upon reading this article was ‘if even the banana republic’s understand you need to cut spending, where does that leave Ireland ?’.

BTW, Kenya’s debt:GDP stands at 46.5% (2012 figure).