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{
    "id": 1127712,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1127712/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 606,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kiharu, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Ndindi Nyoro",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13370,
        "legal_name": "Samson Ndindi Nyoro",
        "slug": "samson-ndindi-nyoro"
    },
    "content": " Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I rise to support. When you talk about pension, it is not a favour that is given to the retired personnel. It is a right. By definition, this is money that is set aside when the retired employee is active at work and, therefore, it is their money that has been set aside to be paid at a later day. Therefore, there is no reason for the benefits that are accrued to the retiree to be kept for too long. I say so because even in our budget making process, pensions fall under the Consolidated Fund Services (CFS). Usually, these are funds that are not negotiable. These are like the debt repayment and the salaries and benefits of employees of the various commissions in the country. Therefore, there is no single reason, strictly speaking, especially in terms of budget, that those benefits should be kept for too long because the essence of the pension is to be a mattress so that the livelihoods and the standard of life of the person who was previously working is not crudely disrupted. Therefore, the money that is kept aside that we call pension is supposed to come in handy in terms of bridging the gap to be able to make the retirees live a dignified life. It is important that we do not punish the people to get their own money because this is not money given by the Government or the employers. It is money that is strictly put aside by the employees in their active service. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, even as we amend the timeline, there is a big problem in terms of pensions and the saving culture in this country. If you compare our saving culture with other countries, including our peers like Uganda, I think we have a long way to go. If you compare the same to even more developed economies like even the US, people are able to live almost the same life they lived when they were working because they are able to save a significant amount of their income for the latter days. Having said that, the dependency rate in our country is very high. We have so few working to support so many. You have people within the age bracket of what we can call working class in terms of age who have no source of income and, therefore, there are so many people depending on a few that are working. I say so because even as we talk about pensions, we need to look at the numbers. Who are these people who actually benefit from pensions? They are very few in proportion to our population. That is why we even have societal problems. Majority are faced even by some of the leaders sitting in this House. You find many households that depend on just a few within the family to feed them and for their livelihood. So, even as we talk about pension, the critical area that we need to look at is on creating opportunities for as many people as possible to be active participants of the growth of our economy. Our situation can be comparable nominally to economies that are now currently riding on technology. As we compare the same, our country is so much lagging behind because the dependency rate and the concentration of revenue and income in our country contrasts to the other economies because those are high growth economies where the concentration of income is not basically because people are unemployed, but because they are adopting technology so that capital is able to generate a lot of revenue. All I am trying to say without so much jargon is that for us to have a stable country and especially to look after the people who have retired and even those who were not able to have some source of income to save for their pension, is for us to expand the bracket so that we have as many people working. We lower the dependency rate so that we have as many people generating their own revenue for their own livelihoods. I support this amendment from my friend, Hon. Barasa, and I actually think three months is too long. We should bring it closer home. Why wait for three months for the money that you 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."
}