AG fights Sh16bn teachers’ pension

What you need to know:

  • The Court of Appeal had earlier ordered the government to pay the teachers the pension accrued since 1997.
  • The AG’s lawyer, Mr Mwangi Njoroge, told the committee chaired by Tinderet MP Julius Melly that the State is waiting for a hearing date from the Supreme Court.
  • “We are hearing here for the first time that the matter is in the Supreme Court. We have not been served. We do not know what the appeal is about,” said Mr Kimata.

Retired teachers will wait longer to get Sh16.7 billion owed by the State after the Attorney-General moved to the Supreme Court to challenge the award.

The Court of Appeal had earlier ordered the government to pay the teachers the pension accrued since 1997.

The National Assembly’s Education committee was last week informed by the AG, Prof Githu Muigai’s office that the government wants the 2010 order reviewed.

The AG’s lawyer, Mr Mwangi Njoroge, told the committee chaired by Tinderet MP Julius Melly that the State is waiting for a hearing date from the Supreme Court.

“There is no new matter that has been filed. It is the same one filed a while ago but we are yet to get a hearing date. The court had informed us that it would fix a date in December but that has not happened,” the lawyer said.

The retired teachers’ lawyer Dominic Kimata informed told the committee that the AG’s office has not served him with the suit papers.

WE HAVE NOT BEEN SERVED

“We are hearing here for the first time that the matter is in the Supreme Court. We have not been served. We do not know what the appeal is about,” said Mr Kimata.

MPs, however, took issue with the AG, saying he had decided to contest a lower court’s decision without informing the pensioners’ lawyer.

The decision to appeal the ruling did not go well with the lawmakers who accused Prof Githu of not being sympathetic to the plight of the retired teachers.

They threatened to push for his sacking as he is treating the matter lightly by failing to appear before them twice over the last two weeks to respond to concerns raised by the pensioners.

The committee has been handling the dispute after the retired teachers approached them following the government’s failure to honour a court directive that they be paid the billions.

The AG was expected to appear before the committee last Wednesday at the Continental House but failed, prompting the lawmakers to question his seriousness.