Kenyan workers get 7 percent salary hike.

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - The Kenyan government Wednesday raised the minimum wage of workers by seven percent, which will enable the lowest paid employee to earn 3,210 shillings (40 US dollars), up from last year's monthly rate of 3,000 shillings.

Addressing workers who had thronged the Uhuru Park in Nairobi to mark Labour Day, labour minister Joseph Ngutu said the raise was in line with the mean economic growth of 0.8 percent recorded last year. He said Kenya has in the past faced serious economic challenges, some of which have been hard to deal with.

Labour Day, celebrated world-wide on 1 May, marks the significant role workers play in the economic development of the world.

Ngutu was, however, optimistic that the country's economy will continue to improve. He told the gathering of about 5,000 workers that the government has finalised a draft paper on employment creation and poverty alleviation.

On child labour, an issue which featured prominently in presentations made by different worker groups and children institutions, Ngutu said the government was committed to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 182, which criminalises the engagement of underage persons in employment.

He cited the enactment of the Children's Act, which became ...