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{
"id": 1506315,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1506315/?format=api",
"text_counter": 86,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Seme, ODM",
"speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr) James Nyikal",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker, for giving me this opportunity to contribute. Let me start by congratulating Hon. (Dr) Makali Mulu and the current Governor of Taita-Taveta County. When we talk of pension, perhaps, I understand it better than most of you because of my age and past experience in Government. I want to repeat that this Bill does not give more money to Members of Parliament. It does two things. It harmonises the existing pension scheme with the Constitution. That is the basic function. It also links it with the social protection policies of this Government. That is all. There is no more money that will come from anywhere in this Bill. As I have said, it is about the current Constitution which has the Bill of Rights. Its big part is social protection. No country can grow and develop if it does not have a strong social protection programme. It is not only Members of Parliament, all vulnerable people need social protection. And all people who retire need social protection. Members of Parliament are actually a particular group. Hon. Deputy Speaker, I have taken time to look at the lives of Members of Parliament and politicians in general, at the time when they get in and at the time when they get out. Over 90 per cent of them are socio-economically worse off when they have left Parliament than when they came in. The process of getting in Parliament itself is expensive. But even more expensive is the process of maintaining that seat. The social responsibilities that go with it, we all know them. The harambees, the funerals and all other the social responsibilities. There is no person who is wealthy enough as they go into Parliament who cannot, at the end of it, be poor. Extremely rich and wealthy people have been in politics and when they exit, they are poor. We look at our colleagues who have been there and have retired and most of them, over 90 per cent, are not doing well. And these are people who are either professionals, very serious and successful business people or they were people in academia or in government who were doing well. What is it that makes them unable to manage themselves after they leave this House? It is the process of leadership as it is in the country today. So, this Bill aligns our pension scheme with the Constitution so that Members of Parliament can get the protection that is required. On social protection, I was in the ministry dealing with social protection… I have just been informed that when we decided on Ksh2,500, actually it was Ksh2,000. Hon. Mbadi, when he was still here, actually made amendments to push it up to Ksh2,500. We complained because we did not have money, but today I am told even Members of Parliament are benefiting, which means I am likely to benefit. So, that social protection in our Chapter 4 of the Bill of Rights, is key in what is happening here. The other element is actually in our Constitution where we have created a bi-cameral system which has two Houses of Parliament, the Senate and the National Assembly. What this Bill does is take care of that. One in definitions and two in nomenclature, so, that when we say Parliament, it must be sure you mean both the National Assembly and the Senate, which was not there before. The old Act did not take care of that and therefore that is important. And when we go into all the structures, in terms of membership of all the structures, the old Act did not also take care of the fact that there are two Houses of Parliament. So, what this Bill does is to take that into consideration so that membership can then include both Houses of Parliament. Those are the basic issues in this Bill."
}