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Parliament Building, Nairobi/FILE/CFM

Kenya

MPs okay Sh100,000 monthly pension for retired legislators

NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 5 – The National Assembly has approved the the Parliamentary Pensions (Amendment) Bill, 2019, which will see more than 375 lawmakers who retired between 1984 and 2001 receive a monthly pension of Sh100,000 for life.

The Bill which now awaits Presidential Assent to become law, will update provisions provided in the mother Act, which came into force in 2002, stipulating that only MPs who served for two terms or more are entitled to a monthly pension of at least Sh125,000 for the rest of their lives.

Leader of Minority Coalition John Mbadi and his Whip Junet Mohammed urged President Uhuru Kenyatta to assent to the Bill which they say is timely and will alleviate the challenges their former colleagues.

Mbadi said the Bill which was sponsored by the Minority Coalition is meant to implement recommendations in line with recommendations of the Akilano Akiwumi Task Force. to backdate the payments to July 2010.

“I was working the statistitics, if you work with an average of Sh80,000 increment per member -without even factoring in taxation because this must be taxed- the country will incur Sh144 million in the first year. I don’t that is too much pressure on our budget,” he said noting the 2020-21 budget provides Sh126.5 billion for retirees.

On his part, Junet said some of the former lawmakers are paid as low as Sh2,000 which can barely cater to their needs, more so healthcare.

However, Garissa Township MP Aden Duale expressed fears that enactment of the amendment might open the doors for othe sectors of the civil service to demand for the pension terms to be reviewed.

“It will create a spiral effect, within the civil servce in that, if the MPs can increase, there pension to Sh100,000, what about the Permanent Secretaries, Cabinet Ministers, and other civil servants,” he said.

Leader of Majority Party Amos Kimunya lauded the Houses for approving the Bill which will adjust the earning of the former legislators from Sh6,000 to Sh100,000 to the vagaries of inflation.

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“Let’s be fair to MPs who served in this Parliament, they are pensionable in the first instance, the only thing we are doing is that someone who is putting the correct value on that Sh6,000 they were entitled to 20 years ago, so that they can we can try to cushion them..because they served this nation with honour, they served this country with dignity, it will unfortunate for us to let them go out in, indignity,” he said.

There have concerns about the legality of the amendment especially since members have a clear limited tenure.

International Centre for Policy and Conflict Executive Director Ndung’u Wainaina said the critical question would be if the MPs were contributing to a pension scheme.

“Were those MPs members of a pension scheme then? Were they contributing? You cannot introduce a pension scheme to a person who was not in the first place a member of any scheme,” he said.

The Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) projected that the government will be paying about Sh15.1 million per month.

With the recommendation to backdate the payments to July 2010, PBO said it would cost about Sh1.76 billion in the first year of implementing the Bill.

“The annual pension payment would amount to approximately Sh180.9 million assuming there are currently about 160 ex-MPs and about 130 widows/widowers,” PBO said.

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