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{
    "id": 1024148,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1024148/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 238,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Tharaka, DP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. George Gitonga",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13491,
        "legal_name": "George Gitonga Murugara",
        "slug": "george-gitonga-murugara"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I rise to support this Bill by Hon. Mwadime, which seeks to amend the Parliamentary Pensions Act to deal with the retirement benefits of Members of this House. I have keenly listened to Hon. Mwadime and the seconder, Hon. Gladys Wanga, and I am in full agreement that it is vitally important that this House looks at the various provisions of the Parliamentary Pensions Act with a view to streamlining them and bringing them to accord with our Constitution. Important to say, we are 10 years down the line and we still have many laws, including this one, which do not comply with our Constitution. Most importantly, I have observed the lives of former Members of Parliament and the situation is pathetic. Members of Parliament who founded this House at Independence in 1963 and the subsequent ones live in abject poverty and they move around begging in the villages. This is absolute disgrace. It is high time citizens realised that Members of Parliament do represent them and their interests in the country. And those Members of Parliament must also be taken care of, especially in their old age. And it is right to say that when a Member of Parliament is elected the first time, you will choose as to whether you want to get gratuity at the end of your term or you want to get into a pension scheme. But we must also encourage the pension scheme because it is more durable in taking care of Members especially during old age. I urge Members to pass this Bill, with the necessary amendments that we are going to make. We also have other Kenyans who are looking at us and saying, “Look at those greedy Members of Parliament talking about their own pensions and not thinking about us.” Those claimants are former councillors. We have councillors who served this country diligently for many years but nobody seems to care about them. Every time this matter is brought up, we are told there is no money. This House should have moved in to enact a law to take care of our former councillors. This is important. As we do so, I remind this House that in the year 2018, we did pass a law where we said basic administrators in any government are the village elders. And we passed a Motion that the Government should consider remunerating village administrators. They are also 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."
}