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{
    "id": 1506264,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1506264/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 35,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kitui Central, WDM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr) Makali Mulu",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "The other important matter is that the current Act presumes that only men are elected to Parliament. That is why it only talks about widows but not widowers. The assumption was that there would be no women Members of Parliament. I have seen many women Members of Parliament like the Hon. Deputy Speaker, who is now pensionable. The current Act is structured in such a way that in case anything happens to a woman Member of Parliament, her spouse will not receive anything. We are amending the Act to appreciate the fact that we now have women Members of Parliament who are our sisters. In case anything happens to them, their spouses, who will now be widowers, will be treated in the same way that we treat widows. That is an important amendment because the reality is that we will always have women Members of Parliament and we cannot discriminate on matters of pension. In case anything happens, that door will be open. The amendment Bill addresses that matter. Clause 14 talks about the management committee. We initially had the Pension Management Committee as a sub-committee of the Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC), which dealt with pension matters. It was then chaired by my colleague, Hon. Mwadime. The Committee is currently only made up of membership from the National Assembly because the Senate is not recognised by the current Act. This clause seeks to include the Senate in the membership of the Committee, so that both Senators and Members of the National Assembly sit on the Committee. The Committee will then reflect the true image of Parliament, which is made up of both the Senate and the National Assembly. Clause 14 also defines the quorum of that Committee to settle and conduct business. Clause 15 talks about a tribunal which deals with pension issues or appeals by Members. The tribunal already exists but its membership is only made up of Members of the National Assembly. We are opening up the membership to include Senators. The current Act also states that the tribunal draws money from the Consolidated Fund Services to take care of their expenses. They have been drawing funds from the National Treasury. We are amending the Act so that their expenses will be funded by the PSC to make it easier for them to operate. Currently, any time they want to sit, they must write to the National Treasury to give them authorisation and financing. If they are under the PSC, they will be facilitated any time that they want to sit just like any other Committee of the PSC. That will make it easier for Members to get justice."
}