Former councillors are set to meet Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani next week to know if they will get retirement benefits.
The former civic leaders want to be paid a Sh1.5 million gratuity and a Sh30,000 monthly stipend each. If approved, this would cost the government some Sh18 billion.
Kakamega county former councillors' chairman Modekai Nandwa said on Monday they will meet with the Treasury CS on Wednesday next week.
“We want the minister to tell us why our money is not being paid. Our members continue to die. Why can’t they pay us before we all die? Most of our colleagues are living in squalid conditions, shortening their lives further,” he said.
Yatani was expected to meet with the Senate Committee on Labour and Social Welfare over the payout on Wednesday last week, but the meeting failed to take place after he sought more time.
The CS said his ministry was validating a report by a task force that dealt with the issue of the former councillors' pension scheme.
Yatani had been summoned alongside his counterparts Simon Chelugui (Labour) and Eugene Wamalwa (Devolution) to explain the inordinate delay in paying the former civic leaders.
Some 12,000 former councillors have been pushing the exchequer to pay them their retirement benefits.
The former civic leaders began to agitate for the Sh30,000 monthly pension each in September 2015.
They also wanted the state to give them medical cover, unlimited access to county government offices and assemblies, exemption from parking fees and be involved in running county governments.
They say they have been neglected after serving between 1963 and 2013.
To avoid such pitfalls, the Council of Governors has developed a bill to cater for retirement benefits for governors, their deputies, MCAs and county assemblies' speakers.
If approved, the bill would give county governments the authority to make remittances to the pension scheme.
Edited by A.N
