Suspect deals by the NSSF must be probed

The National Social Security Fund grew to notoriety as a willing supplier of political slush funds during the lawless days when theft of public funds was accepted practice.

The Fund’s management was quite happy to collude with powerful plunderers who had no compunction about bankrupting the public wealth through outrageous get-rich-quick schemes.

Recent payments involving the NSSF and a few other public institutions indicate that little has changed. Contentious claims dating back to the old days have been paid with alacrity to the same buccaneers under the guise of out-of-court settlements.

There is no way the NSSF board can justify paying hundreds of millions of shillings for phantom projects. The argument that millions have been saved out of the generosity of the claimants who waived some dues holds no water when the claims were spurious in the first place.

The NSSF and other public bodies that have suddenly become so generous in paying out billions for suspect bills must be urgently investigated and those responsible held to account.

For too long, the real ‘owners’ of NSSF, the contributors, have been reduced to passive bystanders as their funds were looted dry.

Stakeholders are represented on the NSSF Board of Trustees by representatives from Cotu and the Federation of Kenya Employers, in addition to Permanent Secretaries from the ministries of Finance and Labour.

It is obvious, then and now, that the Trustees have either been asleep on the job or willing accomplices to grand theft. The Trustees must, therefore, join management in stepping aside to pave the way for independent investigations.