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{
    "id": 1506311,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1506311/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 82,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kikuyu, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Kimani Ichung’wah",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "These Members are left very desolate. We have an opportunity now. I encourage even those who lose elections not to take up their gratuity, if they intend to come back. Keep it in the pension scheme. I like what Hon. Chepkonga shared with me here. We need to move an amendment in the Parliamentary Pensions (Amendment) Bill to keep it in Parliament, so that Parliamentary Pensions Scheme is administered in Parliament by the Parliamentary Service Commission. Hon. Chepkonga is a former Commissioner of the Parliamentary Service Commission. He can guide us. I encourage him to bring amendments to make sure that this pension scheme is administered by the Parliamentary Service Commission. They will relate better to the struggles and needs of Members of Parliament than those in the National Treasury. When you leave office and you are old or elderly, you will find your children in the National Treasury. They will not care who you are, Hon. Kwenya. Some will be your grandchildren who will see you as an old man. They will not know how much you struggled to improve lives of the people of Kinangop and Kenyans at large, including them. Members of Parliament who will be in this House, serving in the Parliamentary Service Commission, will relate better with the struggles of a Member of Parliament. Therefore, I encourage Hon. Chepkonga to liaise with Hon. (Dr) Makali Mulu for this pension scheme to be administered by the Parliamentary Service Commission, but not the Executive in the National Treasury. You will see the kind of distaste that those in the Executive have for former Members of Parliament. Those who pursue their pensions with the National Treasury will bear me witness. Lastly, young parliamentarians are increasingly being elected both in this House and the Senate. Hon. Toto was elected when she was 24 years old. This means that even if she serves for three terms, she will still be below 45 years. She will be eligible to pension. After serving three terms, she will wait for another six years to access her pension. We are now creating a provision where Hon. Toto, after serving her three terms, can still access her pension below the age of 45 which is a good thing. As Hon. (Dr) Makali Mulu said, you may fall ill or something may happen. You may even be involved in an accident that incapacitates you, and you are unable to work. However, you have pension that is being kept somewhere by an administrator of a pension’s scheme, and you cannot access it until you are 45 years old. You may even die before you are 45 years old, and you leave your money being enjoyed by others. In conclusion, it is good to remind all of us. I know many Members of Parliament are usually threatened by losing elections, especially around this time. You are told, and allow me to say it in Kiswahili, Utatupata 2027. Utaenda nyumbani 2027”. You go home every day. I do not know if there is a Member of Parliament who does not go home every day. You go home every day. Nobody should threaten you that you will go home because you go to your home. The question you should ask yourself when you are here is: the day you are not serving as a Member of Parliament, how shall things be for you, so that you do not feel threatened by anybody threatening you that you will go home? You will go home and continue living your life as you lived when you were a Member of Parliament. Take care of yourselves and pension. Contribute more to the National Social Security Fund (NSSF), if you can. You can elect to contribute more because that is what will take care of you when you are at home and not working. Inevitably, you are growing old. A time will come when you will choose to retire. You do not have to go home because somebody threatened you or decided you are no longer useful. You can also choose to retire. When you do it, it is what you contributed to your pension that will take care of you beyond your active life. With those many remarks, Hon. Deputy Speaker, I beg to support this Bill. I would like to point out, for purposes of the media and those who propagate lies against this House, that the Parliamentary Pensions Scheme is contributory. Members of Parliament contribute their money from their salaries, like every other employee who is in a contributory pension scheme. Nobody should peddle rumours and propaganda out there that we are giving ourselves more money. There is not a single shilling from public coffers that is in this Bill. Hon. (Dr) Makali"
}