•Currently, there are 160 former MPs who served between July 1984 and January 2001.
•While making submissions over the proposed Parliamentary pension (amendment) bill, the former MPs are now pushing for a standardised rate that will match how pension is paid across the world.
Image: FILE
Former Members of Parliament are now pushing for their retirement benefits to be pegged on the dollar in the wake of the depreciating shilling.
Former Parliamentarians Association of Kenya (FOPAK) comprising of the legislators who served between the 1970s to 2001, said that some members have been missing their pension dues with others getting as little as Sh3,000.
In their submissions to the Finance Committee, the former legislators said that the lowest pension payment was Sh2,000.
The average pension for MPs who earned less than the recommended amount was Sh33,000 on average.
For the MPs who served before 1984, they have been receiving between Sh3000 and Sh10,000 monthly, according to former Alego Usonga MP Otieno Mak’Onyango.
However, the current law that governs pension for MPs stipulates that only lawmakers who serve for two terms or more, are entitled to a monthly pension of at least Sh125,000 for the rest of their lives.
While making submissions over the proposed Parliamentary pension (amendment) bill, the former MPs are now pushing for a standardised rate that will match how the pension is paid across the world.
“We recommend that the rate be set at $1000 (Sh144, 547) which is the minimum payable among common countries. All we are trying to do is bring Kenya in harmony with the rest of the world,” said Mak’Onyango.
Currently, there are 160 former MPs who served between July 1984 and January 2001.
The former legislators also want MPs who served one term to be included in the pension plan.
The committee chair Kimani Kuria however, dismissed the proposal to pay the former MPs in dollars, pointing out that even the President is not paid in dollars.
“No one in government is paid in dollars, this will bring accounting challenges if the dollar rises in the next two months then drops in the subsequent period,” said Kuria.
In their defense, the MPs defended themselves saying at any time their pension should be pegged on the equivalent of $1000 dollars.
“If they had fixed it at Sh100,000 Kenya shillings, then it will be mutilated by that rate of inflation that’s why we have indicated the equivalent of $1000 dollars,” Mak’Onyango said.
The current MPs had in March revived a Bill that was rejected by former President Uhuru Kenyatta to increase pension for members who retired between 1984 and 2001.
The Bill republished by Kimilili MP Didmus Barasa shows it will cost taxpayers an extra Sh181 million every year to keep former MPs who retired between July 1, 1984, and January 1, 2001, comfortable.
The proposed law by Barasa further seeks to backdate the new pension to July 1, 2010, in line with recommendations by a task force appointed to evaluate the lives of former MPs 10 years ago.
The fresh push comes at a time when the government is seeking to reduce spending on the wage bill and free up cash to fund development projects and pay maturing loans.
The committee however proposed to incorporate inflation adjustment rather than pegging the amount on $1000 dollars, which will pose a challenge with accounting.