Budget boss ordered to pay retired teachers

MPs on Thursday ordered the budget controller to raise Sh16.7 billion in three weeks to pay retired teachers their pensions.

Education Committee chairman Julius Melly directed Ms Agnes Odhiambo to ensure the funds were available in the stipulated time, saying the matter had dragged on for too long.

“We need all pending issues to be resolved and the retired teachers get what they deserve,” he said.

Ms Odhiambo, however, blamed lack of funds from the Treasury, an unclear court directive on the matter and lack of guidance from the Attorney-General’s office and the Teachers Service Commission for failure to pay the teachers, who retired in 1997.

“Pension is computed on the last paid salary and the TSC has not given us those figures so that the Treasury can release the funds,” she said.

TSC secretary Gabriel Lengoiboni said the commission had been unable to compute what the former teachers should have earned at the time of retirement due to a negotiated pay rise towards which the government had only paid a single instalment, leaving four unpaid.

The former teachers won a case at the High Court in Nakuru which ordered that all the retired teachers covered by a 1997 agreement between the TSC and the Kenya National Union of Teachers were entitled to benefits based on the salary increment contained in that deal.

CONTRADICTORY STATEMENTS

MPs have previously criticised Attorney-General Githu Muigai for making contradictory statements on the matter.

He said that he planned to appeal the court ruling but at the same time told the committee he supported the decision to pay the retired teachers.

Ms Odhiambo said a meeting between the TSC, the AG’s office, her office, a representative of the former teachers and the director of pensions would help resolve the impasse and ensure the teachers were paid in 21 days.

The controller of budget was speaking when she appeared before the committee to explain why her office had not secured the funds to pay the retirees.

She said paying the former teachers their salary arrears and pensions will amount to Sh23 billion — a heavy burden.

She suggested that negotiations be opened with the former teachers for payments in phases.

The Pensions Act says retired workers should be paid according to their last salary before retirement.

As a result, the former teachers’ pensions cannot be paid according to their salaries at retirement because they had not been adjusted to the salary increase of between 150 and 200 per cent that was negotiated with their employer in 1997.