National Social Security Fund digs in amid cynicism on ‘house helps’

By MACHARIA KAMAU

The National Social Security Fund (NSSF) appeared undeterred on its drive to register all domestic house helps amid skepticisms on enforcement of such a policy.

 Addressing a media briefing yesterday, the NSSF Managing Trustee Tom Odongo said the Fund was already training officers in its 43 offices across the country to follow the campaign through.

According to Odongo, the team will join an already existing one that has been undertaking inspections – some of them impromptu – to ascertain companies in the country comply with the NSSF and the Employment Acts.

The Fund has also launched an aggressive awareness campaign for both the domestic workers and their employers and would start enforcing compliance after the lapsing of an amnesty period on May 31.

NSSF is looking at registering an estimated 3 million workers – that include house helps, gardeners, herdsmen and drivers. This would significantly push up the number of members that currently stands at 1.5 million.

Currently, employers are supposed to remit Sh400 every month per employee for their social cover. The Sh400 social security contribution is a shared cost between the employer and employee, each contributing 50 per cent.

The Fund on Wednesday said it planned to mount a door-to-door inspection exercise in residential houses to enforce a mandatory requirement to register domestic workers with the Fund.

The door-to-door inspection exercise will be, conducted across the country by authorised NSSF compliance officers to identify domestic workers — house helps, gardeners, herds boys and drivers among others — who will not have been registered with the fund at the close of the current amnesty period, which closes on May 31.