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{
    "id": 1277535,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1277535/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 480,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kilifi North, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Owen Baya",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "suffers. The lives of people are cut short a lot of times because the little comfort they had while they were working is cut, since there is no salary and pension takes three years to come. We need to stop the suffering of pensioners, even those who served in high positions and probably because of exigencies of life, they retired without savings. The only savings they have is their pension which is deliberately delayed inordinately in such a way that their families suffer. Their children do not go to school. Because of their age, they require constant medication for blood pressure, diabetes and other diseases. However, they cannot afford them, yet their money lies in the National Treasury. I congratulate and thank Hon. Didmus Barasa. Today, we need to reduce the amount of time for pensioners to get their money. Pensioners and other Kenyans out there are celebrating you today for thinking about them, caring for them and thinking that this is the time they need to have their money faster for the first time. Teachers whom I worked with for many years retired. They educated their children using their little money. They took loans and hoped that when they retire, they would go home and have a comfortable life. However, that is when their hardest life begins. They watch the children they educated living a good life. When you retire as a teacher, that is the beginning of a very miserable life because your pension comes after five years. You go to the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) but you are told stories. You go to the National Treasury but you need a broker. You use the little money that you have to get that pension. In line with the Kenya Kwanza mantra, no one will be left behind. We should not leave pensioners behind. The pensioners in Kilifi County suffer. By the time they get their pension, they would have used the bus almost 100 times on back and forth trips to Nairobi. Before they retired, they could afford air tickets or travel comfortably in their cars. They used to have good lives. However, you reduce them to travel by bus for 12 hours to get to Nairobi. When they get to Nairobi, they stay on the streets because they cannot afford hotel accommodation. They sleep in the restaurants around Tea Room waiting for the sun to rise again so that they can go and get their files “moved” for one inch. They stay again another day and the files “move” another one inch. By the time they are done, they are sick. They contract pneumonia because of the cold weather in Nairobi and sleeping on cold floors. Hon. Temporary Speaker, it is time we ended the suffering of pensioners in this country. I want to tell the people at the National Treasury to style up. Is it a must for people to “push” their files? Sometimes I am told, “Deputy Leader of the Majority Party, please, help me. Take me to the National Treasury.” This guy worked, suffered and sweat alone. Why is it that when it is time to get his pension, somebody must take him to the National Treasury to ensure that he gets his pension? It is his hard-earned money and sweat. He is not borrowing from anybody. It is his money and, before, he should get it, he sweat for it. The 13th Parliament needs to stamp its authority to address this matter once and for all. We need to change the law to ensure that one gets his pension money one month after he retires. As a worker, when I retire and receive my last pay cheque in July, my pension should come in August. I should have pension in my account so that I can continue with the pace of my life. I urge this House to support this Bill. I thank Hon. Didmus Barasa. He is a good man who thinks about those who are suffering. He empathises with them because he once suffered for many years. I thank him most sincerely. With those remarks, I second this Motion."
}