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{
    "id": 938260,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/938260/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 158,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Suba South, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. John Mbadi",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 110,
        "legal_name": "John Mbadi Ng'ong'o",
        "slug": "john-mbadi"
    },
    "content": "pensionable because the Parliamentary Pensions Act was not in place. So, those Members of Parliament who served from Independence to 1984 were paid Kshs1 million as ex-gratia payment, in line with the recommendation of the Justice Majid Cockar Commission. The rest of the Members of Parliament who served between 1984 and 2001 could not be paid ex-gratia because they were now covered by the Parliamentary Pensions Act of 1984. The recommendation in that Report was that those former Members of Parliament were earning peanuts in form of pension. I checked and found out that some of those former Members of Parliament are currently earning Kshs6,000. But I am told there are some who are earning as low as Kshs2,000. This is because the pension of Members of Parliament is pegged on salary. And the salary then was too low that applying the percentages and the ratios to that salary to give as pension to those Members of Parliament is as good as giving them nothing. If you pay a former Member of Parliament a pension of Kshs6,000, that will be taken up by bank charges. Someone cannot move from rural areas to come to Nairobi to collect Kshs6,000. The recommendation was that the pension of those Members of Parliament needs to be enhanced to be in line with the changes in the economic environment, but this did not happen. In 2009, when I was already a Member of Parliament, and I remember very well, another commission was formed when the PSC was being chaired by your predecessor, Hon. Kenneth Marende. The Akiwumi Commission was formed and it held too many meetings. I personally appeared before that Commission at the KICC. Apart from looking at the welfare of Members of Parliament - because the questions then were about taxation of Members of Parliament, which was a very hot topic; whether Members of Parliament should pay taxes on the entire emoluments or if only their basic salary should be subjected to taxation… Remember up to 2010, Members of Parliament were paying taxes only on the Kshs200,000 which was the basic salary. All the other allowances were tax-free. That changed with the 2010 Constitution. However, there were other matters that the Akiwumi Commission was looking into. Besides that, the plight of former Members of Parliament again became an important issue of discussion. Former Members of Parliament presented themselves before the Akiwumi Commission and expressed their frustrations. The Akiwumi Commission literally agreed with the Cockar Commission and the former Members of Parliament that paying a pension of, say, Kshs2,000 or Kshs6,000 or Kshs10,000 to former Members of Parliament was like an insult to those senior citizens of this country. That is when again it was reinforced in the Akiwumi Report, which was adopted by the PSC. It was even brought to the plenary and we debated that Report and adopted it. It was recommended that what they called a living pension be given to those former Members of Parliament. The figure that was recommended was US$1,000 per former Member of Parliament who is earning less than US$1,000. If you change this figure into Kenya shillings, it comes to about Kshs100,000. Because we cannot legislate in US dollars, the figure can safely be said to be Kshs100,000. Therefore, the Akiwumi Commission recommended that those former Members of Parliament who were earning less than Kshs100,000 as pension should be paid Kshs100,000 so that they can also age graciously and take care of their day-to-day needs. Since that Report was adopted in November 2009, no action has been taken. The reason no action was taken is because we have to legislate. The pension is based on the Pensions Act. A report of Parliament, even if adopted, cannot amend the law or give the legal basis to pay those"
}