Former MPs want to be paid Sh3.2m pension

By JUDY OGUTU

Six former Members of Parliament want the payment of retirement benefits to current legislators stopped until all former MPs are paid Sh3.2 million each, as pension.

The former legislators, Wanyiri Kihoro, Andrew Kiptoon, Mohammed Galgalo, Mark  Mithaga, Adam  Bonaya, and Robert Kipkorir want the High Court to stop the Attorney General and the Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC) from processing any payments for MPs.

In a petition filed at the High Court in Nairobi, the petitioners claim many of their former colleagues are living in squalor and that they have no honour, income or basic human needs.

They are asking the court to withhold the payment of pension and gratuity to the sitting MPs until after the budgetary allocations and payments have been put in place as per the recommendations of a tribunal on remuneration of MPs.

Parliament, they claim, has been treating them dishonourably by withholding their pension and gratuity payments.

Consequently, they want the court to order payment of the requisite amounts to all the former legislators.

The petitioners are also seeking for an order directing PSC to make arrangements to pay living pension and gratuity to all the former MPs at a rate of Sh100,000 per month.

This, they argue, is per the recommendation of a tribunal on remuneration of MPs that was chaired by former Appeal Judge Akilano Akiwumi.

The tribunal had recommended that each MP be paid a minimum pension of Sh100,000 per month  to meet basic needs of food, clothing, medicine and transport.

It is their argument that the current MPs have awarded themselves generous salaries and allowances estimated at Sh2 million.

They contend that the money one is entitled to as pension is shrouded in secrecy as some are paid pension after serving one term while some get the pension after serving two terms.

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