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"id": 248414,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Kagwima",
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"speaker": {
"id": 286,
"legal_name": "Francis Nyamu Kagwima",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me the opportunity to join my colleagues in supporting this important Bill. As a country, we need to ensure that we take care of the people who contributed during their prime age, to the well-being of the economy and the country, right from former Members of Parliament to former assistant chiefs and other junior Government workers. There is a whole lot of these people in the countryside, who are living in poverty. Some of them have actually died of poverty after working for so many years for this good country. It is necessary that we pass this amendment Bill to ensure that even when people are in employment, they serve knowing that when they retire, they will not languish in poverty or be tempted to steal, so that they can take care of their future once they retire. Such action will change the mentality of Kenyan workers, be they in the private or the public sector. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker Sir, it is very disappointing when you meet a bank manager or anybody who was enjoying such a position, then two years after his retirement you cannot even recognise his face. In the developed world, retirees enjoy themselves. Some people work, longing for the time they will retire, so that they can enjoy what they have worked for during their prime time. It is, therefore, timely that we put in place mechanisms that will ensure that administrators of retirement benefits schemes do not play around with what is supposed to go to retirees. I would like to single out one firm which used to be a very good employer, namely, the Kenya Planters Co-operative Union (KPCU). The KPCU used to have a good retirement benefits scheme, where people would retire and get their benefits. However, in the course of time, when the company ran shot of money, it stopped remitting deductions from the employees' salaries. Therefore, the scheme that was benefitting former employees collapsed or severed relations with that employer. As we speak now, five years after former KPCU workers left employment voluntarily having agreed with their former employer that they would be paid their benefits, they are in the countryside living miserable lives. Therefore, I would like to appeal to the KPCU management, and other employers, to ensure that it honours agreements it entered into with its former employees, so that those Kenyans can lead normal lives. It is not only KPCU, but many more others including the NSSF. A few months ago, we read that the NSSF had problems paying retirement benefits to contributors from the private sector and from those who were not in formal employment. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would also like to appeal to those who are running current retirement benefits schemes to ensure that the schemes are run professionally. I hope that 1146 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES June 6, 2006 once this law comes into effect, it will be applied strictly so that people can retire and enjoy their retirement benefits. I would like to appeal to employers who are supposed to pay retirement benefits to their former employees, including the National Assembly, to do so even as we wait for assent of this Bill from His Excellency the President, once it is passed. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, when you walk along the corridors of Parliament Building, you meet many former hon. Members looking very uncomfortable in pursuit of what they expect to be paid as pension by the National Assembly. I would like to appeal to the Chairman of the Parliamentary Service Commission and those in administration to ensure that former the hon. Members are saved from the agony that they have gone through all these years. I had the experience of being out for five years and that experience is not sweet. So, we, in Parliament, should sympathise with those that are outside because life there is not sweet. When something is due to a person, why should he be subjected to suffering? As we pass this Bill, the National Assembly should set an example as a good employer for other institutions to follow. We should set an example as an organisation that takes care of its people when they are out of employment. I would like to urge this House to quickly pass this Bill, so that our workers can enjoy. I have just remembered that old men from Europe come to Kenya using their retirement benefits and get married to our 21-year-old girls. This is because our standard of living in Kenya is so low. We should ensure that our workers enjoy their benefits after they have worked very hard. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}