Social ills ranging from alcoholism, negative masculinity and drug abuse that are facing the country are connected to individuals working their entire lives in the public service, Dagoretti South MP John Kiarie has said.
Kiarie told Parliament on Wednesday that such individuals will never get the opportunity to spend time with their children, wives and grandchildren.
He said this leaves the young people with no one to advise them on what to do with their lives because people are being held in positions beyond their well-working years to the extent that the fabric of society is disintegrating.
"Today we have individuals who spent their entire life working in one institution and at the age of 70, they are still holding to that position," KJ said in Parliament.
He added that young people lack someone to mentor them because their parents and grandparents are stuck in offices until they are 65 to 70 years old.
To try and cure this, the lawmaker now wants the mandatory retirement age for public servants to be capped at 55 instead of the current 60 years.
"An individual can give their best years to public service to the age of 55 after which they can get time to retire back at home and give the knowledge and wisdom that they have to the next generation," he said.
His sentiments were echoed by Alego Usonga MP Samwel Atandi who said parenting problems have been caused by the ageing population stagnating in the public service.
"We have problems like alcoholism, LGBTQ because we are not allowing individuals to retire early so that they can take care of our children," Atandi stated.
The MPs were contributing to the Public Service Commission (Amendment) Bill that caps the mandatory for public servants at sixty.
Embakasi Central MP Benjamin Mwangi who is sponsoring the Bill argues that this will help create job opportunities, especially for the unemployed youth.
The Bill further aims to address the issue of an officer acting in a position for more than six months.
