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{
    "id": 266239,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/266239/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 174,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Githae",
    "speaker_title": "The Minister for Nairobi Metropolitan Development",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 159,
        "legal_name": "Robinson Njeru Githae",
        "slug": "robinson-githae"
    },
    "content": " Mr. Speaker, Sir, on 14th February, this year the Member for Migori Mr. John Pesa sought a Ministerial Statement from the Acting Minister for Finance on the delay in payment of retirement benefits to teachers who had retired between 1987 and 2003. In particular, he wanted the Minister to address the following issues: (a) Delay in payment of Kshs3.34 billion in the current financial year to the concerned retired teachers. (b) The number of teachers whose revised pension details have been prepared by the Teachers Service Commission and submitted to the Pensions Department for payment out of the 32,082 retired teachers that were due to benefit from the total amount of Kshs16.7 billion. (c) Failure to effect the retired teachers’ payments before the court case. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the Government allocated Kshs3.34 billion in the Consolidated Fund Pensions budget for the Recurrent Financial Year 2011/2012 to pay revised pension to teachers who retired between 1997 and 2003. The teachers have, however, not been paid those dues owing to a legal query raised by the Controller of Budget which required the guidance and opinion of the Attorney-General. My Ministry has, therefore, formally sought for guidance from the Attorney-General. Payment will be effected after receipt of the feedback from the Attorney-General. Secondly, Mr. Speaker, Sir, from the foregoing, none of the pension claims for the 31,082 retired teachers due to benefit from the court award have been submitted to the pensions department by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC). The process had to be halted following the query from the Controller of Budget. The two institutions; the TSC and the Pensions Department, have already agreed on the modalities of processing payments which will commence as soon as the legal hitch is cleared and the Controller of Budget approves the withdrawal of funds from the Consolidated Fund. Lastly, it may be noted that payment of teachers’ retirement benefits did not fall under the indicated category of white elephants. The teachers had already been paid their pensions based on the last salary they earned before retirement. They subsequently went to court to have their salary matter adjudicated since the 1997 salary agreement captured in the Legal Notice No.534 of 1997 had not been honoured by the Government then in office. It may be noted that in the year 2003 the Government negotiated another agreement with the teachers and which has been fully implemented. The court therefore entered judgment in the teachers’ favour which is now under implementation pending resolution of the legal hitch. Mr. Speaker, Sir, if I may add, I am very sympathetic to the suffering of these retired teachers. It is actually embarrassing that after so many years, they have not received their pension. Some may even have died without receiving their pension. Therefore, this matter needs to be expedited as soon as we receive the opinion from the Attorney-General. Under the Pensions Act, is says that teachers are to be paid on the last salary earned but this was a court award. The Controller of Budget just wants the interpretation that the court award superseded the provisions of the Pensions Act. Once that is received, we are going to pay. The money is there."
}