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{
    "id": 1015797,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1015797/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 322,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kipipiri, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Amos Kimunya",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 174,
        "legal_name": "Amos Muhinga Kimunya",
        "slug": "amos-kimunya"
    },
    "content": " Hon. Temporary Deputy Chairman, I beg to move: THAT, pursuant to the Memorandum by His Excellency the President, Clause 2 of the Parliamentary Pensions (Amendment) Bill be deleted. Members will recall that this House passed in good faith a Bill to provide for pensions of Members who retired before us. Obviously, it was the wisdom of the House to provide for enhancement of the pensions they are receiving. Perhaps, we may have skipped some steps such that when the matter went to the President, he rejected it. Taking into account the stakeholder memoranda that we received as well as discussions that took place in the House on that day, perhaps, we should have listened more closely to the Salaries and Remuneration Commission and the National Treasury. We set a precedent for other people who have also retired. The President’s wisdom is that the matter requires more thinking than pure passage of one piece of legislation to provide for only one category of retirees whereas there are so many others. He returned the Bill to us. Members know that in this kind of circumstances, unless we can raise a two-thirds majority, it is impossible to override the recommendation of His Excellency the President. We will consider his guidance to the House. Perhaps, we should have considered a few other things. We hope that in the near future, we will look at the Bill comprehensively and bring all those stakeholders on board so that we can see how to take care of our people. I thank Hon. Mbadi who tabled this Bill. It is something that has been brewing for a long time. We see these people because they come to the lobby almost every day. We can see the circumstances they are in. Even as we confirm and approve the President’s Memorandum, I ask the Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC) as their employer to look at other ways we can help ameliorate the conditions these people are in. We can look through it provided we do it within the legal limitations. I thank the President for guiding us so that we do not end up with activists on our case, many of whom hate this Parliament and would have gone to court saying that parliamentarians are just doing things for themselves. Luckily, at least, it did not get there. The President, in his wisdom, has saved us from being taken to court on an issue like this. This would have almost closed the door on further engagement or measures that can be used to ameliorate the deteriorating economic circumstances of our colleagues who have left this House after good service to the nation. However, they left when the economy was not performing well and they did not have a good basis for a good pension and are now suffering while the rest of us are enjoying. I urge Members not to spend a lot of time on this one. We should pass it because however much we debate it, we will never raise the numbers. We know that the House did it in good faith The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}