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"id": 862282,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Murkomen",
"speaker_title": "The Senate Majority Leader",
"speaker": {
"id": 440,
"legal_name": "Onesimus Kipchumba Murkomen",
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"content": "Therefore, one of the reasons for moving this Bill is to open doors for consultation for them to know that time waits no man and prepare themselves to appear before the Committee, present the issues they wanted to raise before the Committee, so that this House when it is ready, to do the voting in Second Reading and thereafter go to the Committee stage and Third Reading. We will not have anyone who we are not carrying along. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, having said that, this is a Government Bill generated from the relevant ministry; the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection and moved in the National Assembly and now it is with this House. First, this Bill creates a unique entity that has never been in the country, which is the County Government Retirement Scheme. This retirement scheme is new and is an institution that will be managed in the manner that is provided for in this Bill for purposes of protecting pension and retirement benefits. Pensions are extremely important. All of us pray that we live between 80 and 120 years as much as possible, so that we continue fulfilling God’s intention and purpose in our lives, country, generation and in the world. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, there comes a time that this energy that we have to dispense and serve people, may not be there after we have retired. Now, the retirement age is 60. Already in other parts of the world, they are moving the retirement age to 70 years, because they are afraid that they do not want people--- People live up to 100 or 120 years. I look forward to a country where in future the average life expectancy should be about 80 years like in Japan and so forth; who now do not wish to retire their experienced staff because they feel even when they are 70 years, they are still energetic enough to serve. With the advent of technology, you do not have to use force but your brains. As long as the brain still works, you can make great contributions. I have been here before, and when we had a Bill that was dealing with elderly people, I said the Constitution protects everybody. Age is not is not a factor for you to refuse to enjoy rights under the Constitution and contribute to the benefits of this Country. This law creates a board of trustees of the scheme. This is an area that I want to request the Chairperson that they re-look at in the Committee of the Whole; the composition of the board and the persons who are sitting in this board. The Bill says that there will be a Chairperson who is appointed by the Cabinet Secretary from among people. This is unique, important and it is useful; that he is not just going to appoint someone from outside there to become the Chairperson. It recognizes the fact that representatives of counties must provide the chairperson and to make it easy; get a person that has already been appointed by the members. Once a particular person has been appointed under the same provision, then the Cabinet Secretary has very minimal discretion to appoint one of those people, who have already been appointed by the county leadership that sits in as a trustee. Secondly, we will have a principal secretary responsible for matters relating to finance and his representative and the principal secretary responsible for matters relating to devolution and his representative. I want to persuade the Chairperson, that perhaps it might be necessary to also have someone, who is responsible for matters of labour from the relevant Ministry of Labour and Social Protection because of policy issues. As I said, even though we are here and we are advocating for counties, we must also appreciate that The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}