Some 21,000 teachers who retired in 1997 will not get their share of a Sh16.7 billion pension arrears payout because their records cannot be verified. Treasury CS Henry Rotich yesterday told MPs the government has set aside Sh3 billion to pay 31,000 teachers out of the 52,000 who were awarded Sh42 billion by the High Court.
At least Sh1.5 billion has been included in the supplementary budget, while another Sh1.5 million will be paid in the 2016-17 national budget after a protracted 18 years of court battles.
Rotich, who appeared before the House Resolutions Implementation Committee, said the excess teachers could not be found in government records, raising concerns they could be ghostworkers in a wider scheme to defraud the taxpayer.
“We are going with the figures we have in our records. We have 31,000 teachers, whatever people are quoting outside there is their own data,” Rotich said.
