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{
    "id": 1060811,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1060811/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 15,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Busia CWR, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Ms.) Florence Mutua",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 539,
        "legal_name": "Florence Mwikali Mutua",
        "slug": "florence-mwikali-mutua"
    },
    "content": "I, the undersigned, on behalf of aggrieved pensioners across the country, draw the attention of the House to the following: THAT, the Pensions Department under the National Treasury is mandated by law to ensure timely and efficient grant of pensions, gratuities and other retirement benefits to eligible public service retirees in order to ensure a dignified and secure livelihood once they leave public service. THAT, contrary to expectation, most senior citizens are forced to make multiple, non- ending and fruitless follow-up visits to Bima House upon retirement in a bid to secure pensions rightfully due to them after many years of serving the public. THAT, there have been repeated cases of pensioners’ files mysteriously disappearing, or being adjudged as incomplete ostensibly on account of lack of sufficient personnel to handle thousands of pensioners’ files, resulting in inordinate delays in processing of pension payments. THAT, these highly inconveniencing delays are a constant source of stress and depression for many pensioners who are compelled to spend their dwindling finances travelling between Nairobi and their far-flung home areas, with a number of them having to borrow transport money from friends because they no longer have any monthly income. THAT, regrettably, some pensioners end up dying without having obtained their pensions for which they toiled for years, thereby leaving their next of kin in squalor, in addition to making them vulnerable to unscrupulous pension officers who contest their kinship status and delay the pension payments even further. THAT, the Auditor-General’s reports on the Pensions Department have repeatedly recommended the urgent reorganisation of the department in view of the perpetual inefficiencies, bottlenecks and unnecessary bureaucracies that continue to cause multiple inconveniencies, complaints and outcries from pensioners and their families. THAT, given the aforementioned systemic inefficiencies bedeviling the Pensions Department, devolution of pension services to counties is the only practical approach to salvaging the management of pensions and safeguarding the welfare of pensioners. THAT, efforts to have the matter resolved by the Pensions Department have not borne any fruit; and THAT the matters raised in this Petition are not pending in any court of law in Kenya. Now, therefore, your humble petitioners pray that the National Assembly, through the Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning: (i) investigates the matter of pending pension payments with a view of obtaining the status of pension payments at the Pensions Department. (ii) seeks detailed outline of measures being implemented by relevant authorities in dealing with perpetual delays in processing pensioners’ dues. (iii) recommends the urgent devolving of pension services to counties and initiates this devolution of pension services through legislation; and, (iv) makes any other recommendation that it deems fit in the circumstances of the Petition. And your petitioners will forever pray. Thank you."
}