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Kenya: Yatani Summoned Over Delayed Payment of Pension Benefits to Councilors

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4 years ago

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Nairobi — National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani has been summoned to appear before the Senate Committee on Labour on Thursday so that he can give details on the payment of a one-off honorarium and monthly pension to the former councilors.

Councilors served as lawmakers under defunct local authorities in municipalities who place was taken up by ward representatives in counties following the enactment of a new Constitution in 2010.

The Committee Chairman Johnson Sakaja issued the directive after Yatani failed to honour an invitation for the third time while citing an emergency meeting at State House.

“Once we have agreed with the National Treasury on Thursday, then the details of the numbers, the audit and the administrative process to get where they are and their contacts etc, will form the agenda of the next meeting, so that it is not about speculation but about specifics and you might find that the amount might change unfortunately now that they are fewer but the kitty is the same,” he said.

Labour Cabinet Secretary Simon Chelugui and his Devolution counterpart Eugene Wamalwa told the Committee that they had submitted a proposal for the former councilors to receive Sh30,000 monthly stipend or Sh1.5 million one-off payment but the National Treasury felt the figure would further burden the public sector pension bill.

Chelugui said an inter-ministerial task-force looking into the matter had proposed that only councilors who had served for 4 terms or 20 years should benefit from the package.

“We found that to be unfair, we wanted them treated as all the other elected leaders such as MPs and Governors. So we felt that all those who served deserved this government support so that they retire honourably. I have seen this in my ministry where social protection plays a big role in life expectancy,” the Labour CS stated.