The process and the law on retirement of state officers scheme as defined in the constitution is illegal.
It was supposed to be reviewed the moment country promulgated the new constitution in 2010.
In 2010, a Bill was introduced in parliament trying to pass a retirement bill for President, MPs and other state officers. Former President Mwai Kibaki selectively signed the bill in favour of himself in 2013. He rejected sections that would have favoured or benefited MPs and other state officers.
The process was never reviewed to comply with the new constitution. There was also no public participation. The Commission for the Implementation of the Constitution went to court seeking a remedy of the bad law.
However, President Uhuru Kenyatta implemented the Kibaki and former President Daniel Moi pension perks using the same law in 2013.
In 2015 Uhuru wrote a memo to parliament saying that former Prime minister Raila Odinga and former Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka should not benefit since they were still active in politics.
In 2016 Cord (Raila's political coalition) went to court to challenge the memo and the High Court, in 2016, declared the amendment to the state officers retirement scheme unconstitutional, discriminatory, vague, uncertain and ambiguous.
It reinstated the benefits for Raila and Kalonzo. They were to get a lump sum and monthly pension.
Whatever they are getting now, or set to get, is illegal since there was no public participation.
That’s why all MPs, MCAs claim retirement benefits anytime their term ends.
The law should be changed to ensure that they individually contribute to the scheme. It should be mandatory.
It (the law) should remove a multiplicity of retirement benefits and should be centralized with clear guidelines.
