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{
    "id": 1277542,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1277542/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 487,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Emuhaya, ANC",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Omboko Milemba",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker. Let me congratulate Hon. Barasa for walking the journey by bringing this Bill to this House. Let me indicate that this is one of the main suffering all the workers of this country, especially the teachers of Kenya undergo except the armed forces – I will speak on that. Many of them die before receiving their pension. Many teachers of this country have paid a lot of money to cartels within the Pensions Department at the Treasury. They are cheated that by paying a certain amount of money, their files will “move” an inch. It takes from 3-8 years before they get their pension. There seems to be no plan or code of agreement of the time it will take for an officer who has retired to get his pension at the Treasury where we have the Pensions Department. It has taken Hon. Didmus Barasa to propose the Pensions (Amendment) Bill – which I fully support – that provides for pensions to be paid immediately after 90 days from the time an officer retires. For example, if a teacher retires, after 90 days he should get his pension. Further, what happens at the Retirement Department is that, when one is employed he gets a letter and one year to his retirement he also receives a letter indicating clearly that he will retire at a given date. The letter comes at exactly one year before their retirement date. Interestingly, when one retires is when Government officers at the Pensions Department start to assemble their documents of retirement yet by the time you receive the one-year notice, you are asked to send several documents, including your payslips, to the Pensions Department. This has been a source of not only anguish and injury to retired public servants, and more so to the retired teachers of this country; but also a conduit to completely eat away their entire pensions. However, by the time it is paid, the amount of bribes and other monies that the retiree would have paid to officers at the Pensions Department would be a lot. This has to be said as it is; in black and white. Leave alone the number of journeys that the worker would have made to Nairobi. By the time the retirees get their money, if they are lucky to get it, they are completely exhausted. They would have borrowed too many loans. Most of them get exhausted and impoverished or most of them even end up dying before they use their pension. Hon. Temporary Speaker, let me indicate that the people who also work in this country, some of whom may have served the country for over 30 years, by the time they are almost retiring would get a challenge in their workplace. This mostly happens with teachers because of the old pension scheme, and not the superannuation scheme. If you lose your job, even if you have one year left to retire, you lose your entire pension. This is another area that Hon. Didmus Barasa should address. I was following keenly. Why should a person who has worked for the Government for 31 years - for example a teacher - lose his entire pension upon losing his job in his 32nd year of service? Such teacher has a whooping 31 years of service to the Government. This is another source of suffering to all the workers in the public service, and not just teachers. Their bosses in the offices end up blackmailing the workers towards the end of their service so that they can deal with their pension. So, teachers and other public servants become slaves. One other thing that could be done - an amendment that could be introduced to this Bill - is to completely make the Pensions Department paperless so that once one joins public service, the system captures all the details of that person and by the time of exiting the service, the system automatically dismisses you and you get your pension. That is what is happening at the KDF. A few minutes ago, we had the Cabinet Secretary for Defence here. The only workers who get their pension on time are the KDF officers. This is because there is a pensions liaison unit of KDF at the Pensions Department at the National Treasury. Two or three officers sit there permanently to deal with their pension. Therefore, by the time a cadet or an officer is leaving the army, they get their pension immediately in the following month unlike all other workers. I further propose that the teachers of this country, 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."
}