The National Council of Churches of Kenya has challenged the move to create the positions of Chief Administrative Secretaries.
Speaking through the council’s General Secretary Rev. Canon Chris Kinyanjui, the move will be ill-timed considering the current state of the economy.
The council now calls on parliament to suspend the process of considering the National Government Administration Laws (Amendment) Bill, which seeks to among others regularize the CAS role.
Speaking in Limuru on Thursday during a council meeting, the religious leaders also called for urgent measures to reduce the tax burden and cut down on wasteful government expenditure to restore the country’s economy and enable Kenyans rebuild their livelihoods.
“We still believe that there is no taxation without representation so we must live within our means we must stop all theft and this is not the responsibility of the National Treasury but all Kenyans to ensure that the little money that we raise as taxes does not end up in the pocket of a few,” stated Rev Kinyanjui.
“When the treasury is saying the country is broke, we should not see the creation of additional seats so that people can earn salaries and allowances so we ask parliament to shelve it until Kenya can pay its obligations in terms of debt and providing services,” Kinyanjui further stated.
The religious leaders also commended the National Dialogue Committee for reaching a consensus and submitting their report to parliament even as they urged political leaders to let this be a people-driven initiative.
“ We are urging all players on all sides of the political divide to wait until this report is adopted by parliament as to whether the will be a referendum that is a decision to be made by Kenyans and not politicians,” he noted.
