President William Ruto has directed that all pension arrears be settled within the next two years.
Addressing a stakeholders meeting of the Association of Pension Trustees and Administrators of Kenya at South C, Nairobi, the President directed relevant ministries to work with the pension schemes, SACCOs and other savings institutions to agree on a framework to ensure all arrears and other unremitted statutory deductions from Parastatals, universities, and other public institutions are settled.
The Head of State in addition noted that it was wrong to delay the disbursement of the said funds.
The move will come as a relief to retired public servants who will now be able to receive their full pension payments within the next two years.
Further, President Ruto emphasized the importance of inculcating the culture of savings, maintaining that the government is keen on taming borrowing and instead using local savings to fund development projects.
This directive by the President comes shortly after the Employment and Labour Relations Court directed that dismissed civil servants are entitled to their full retirement package.
This move by the court sent the Public Service Commission (PSC) back to the drawing board over its decades-long practice of denying those sacked pensions, gratuity and other benefits.
Following the court decision, PSC on October 21 directed all authorised officers in government to inform officers exiting the government of their right to accrued benefits, “irrespective of the modality of exit”.
The decision will be a relief to hundreds of civil servants who have been sacked in the past and forced to go home without a penny.
In the PSC’s latest annual report – 2020/21 – at least 130 employees were dismissed from the service, forming about 2.8 per cent of officers who exited the service during the year.
Public servants exit service through retirement under the “50-year” rule, the mandatory age of 60 and 65 years and medical grounds, death, transfer of service, dismissal, termination of the contract, and the abolition of office.
It is still not clear whether the court’s decision provides room for civil servants dismissed in the past and forced to go home without their benefits to come back for their claims.