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"id": 248413,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Wetangula",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs",
"speaker": {
"id": 210,
"legal_name": "Moses Masika Wetangula",
"slug": "moses-wetangula"
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"content": " Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me the opportunity to contribute to this debate. I will be very brief. I would like to urge the House that this is a Bill that we do not need to belabour. We can dispose of it very quickly. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is absolutely important and necessary that we have administrators introduced, as the Bill proposes, so that the administration of funds is properly done. I associate myself entirely with the sentiments aired by my good friend, Mr. Muturi. I want to add and emphasise on the issue of prosecution. Where there is a default, the Retirement Benefits Authority (RBA) should be fully empowered to prosecute. These kind of offences are what in law we call \"strict liability offences\". They are the only offences where there is a departure from the norm in the Constitution; of being presumed innocent until proved guilty. These are prosecutions where once a company is taken to court, it is up to the company to prove that it remitted the money. This being a strict liability offence, we would want the RBA to be the one to prosecute quickly and take away that burden from the employee because, as Mr. Muturi said, you put the employee on a collision course with the employer thus giving the employer a licence to sack the employee. Eventually, the employee ends up losing. Secondly, I would like the Assistant Minister for Finance to also look at the issue of how to determine default. For instance, now Kenyans are faced with the nightmare of the collapse of Uchumi Supermarkets. You will find that Kenyans who have worked with the supermarket chain for the last 20 years or more, had their pension deductions made but not remitted to the relevant pension scheme. The company has collapsed. It is in liquidation. It is in total bankruptcy and the employees end up with nothing. The receiver managers will not want to entertain any such claims. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, what I would suggest is that the RBA rules be amended to provide that an employer must publish proof of remittances at regular intervals; If it is on a monthly basis, an employer must publish to the employees and to the satisfaction of RBA that they did not only deduct the money from the employees but they also remitted the same to the pension schemes. This is the only way we can be able to protect the employees, so that at the end of the day, we do not have an employee getting fathom payslips every end of the month, showing deductions when those deductions are never remitted to his pension scheme. After retirement, when they go to the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) to claim their pension dues, the NSSF declares them strangers because the pensions body has not received a cent from their former employers. By that time, the employer will have vanished and left the country. It is only by regular publication of proof of remittances that we can protect the employees of the June 6, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 1145 various companies. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would also want to urge that we, as Parliament, make sure that the rules of the RBA are strictly enforced. We need to revisit the Bill that the Deputy Speaker brought to this House, which we passed into law. It provided that where the benefits of a retired employee are not paid within two months, they start accumulating interest until they are paid. We have a law which is not being enforced. I think the RBA should also net in this provision, so that when people retire and are not paid, their money continues to accumulate. In case they die before they are paid, the money should continue accumulating interest. In case they die before they are paid, the money should continue accumulating interest and go to the estates of the deceased workers. That is the only way we can rein in rogue employers who sometimes defraud their employees. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, this amendment Bill is timely. We need to support and pass it quickly, so that we can move on to another business because it is not a matter that is contentious. It is a matter that is straightforward. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}