Fund hosts MPs in a five-Star hotel in Mombasa to lobby support for new NSSF Bill

By Ernest Ndunda                       

Intense lobbying for Parliament to enact the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) 2013 Bill began yesterday with the Fund booking legislators to a Five-Star hotel in Mombasa in a bid to win their support for the proposed law.

During the two-day retreat, the legislators will be hosted by NSSF at the Whitesands Hotel discussing the Bill.  Yesterday’s initial deliberation  showed most of those in attendance were ready to pass the crucial Bill.

The MPs, majority of them members of  the parliamentary Committee on Labour and Social Welfare chaired by David Were arrived at the hotel on Thursday evening ready for the consultative retreat.

Also in Mombasa to lobby support for the proposed law is National Assembly Majority leader Aden Barre Duale, NSSF Managing Trustee Tom Odongo and Secretary General of the Central Organisation of Trade Unions COTU Francis Atwoli.

Yesterday, Were and Duale pledged their readiness to lobby Parliament to adopt the Bill after Odongo had said the proposed law should be passed because it was drafted after intense scientific research and consultation. The Bill seeks to convert NSSF into a national pensions fund.

There was virtually no dissenting voice or resistance  in the opening stages of discussions.

Labour Secretary Kazungu Kambi asked NSSF to transform itself to a world-class institution.

“Although the NSSF has been recognised as one of the vehicles the Government is using to deliver social security to all Kenyans, a lot need to be done to make it more effective,” said Kambi when he officially opened the forum.

“The transformation process of the Fund has been underway since 2004 and the NSSF Trustee Board must seal all the loopholes, including allegations of corruption and put [a] legislative framework to transform the fund,”he said.

He added: “Kenyans need a sound pension system and time is ripe for NSSF to expand its mandate so as to meet Kenyans’ needs, including the self-employed.”

Kambi also raised concerned over the gender disparity within NSSF’s top leadership, saying the Fund had not conformed to the constitutional requirement on gender.  “We have consulted widely before drafting the Bill and it is for the benefit of Kenyan if passed into law,” said Odongo.

NSSF Board of Trustees Chairman Aden Mohamed said the Fund would outsource collection of contribution, a role it hopes to give to Kenya Revenue Authority. “We will seal loopholes as we transform ourselves into a world-class institution,” he said.

However, Cotu Secretary General Francis Atwoli, who sits on the NSSF Board of Trustees opposed the move to have KRA engaged to collect revenue on behalf of the fund.

“KRA has been in record for failing to adequately collect revenue on behalf of the Government and can not be trusted by the board. If it comes to the worst, we shall engage KRA on short-term trial process until it convinces the board it is capable,” said Atwoli.

Duale said he will lobby for the passage of the Bill. “I expect this retreat to come out with a fine-tuned document, which will go through in Parliament once tabled,” he said Duale.

Committee chairman Were said his team is ready to see the Bill become a law. “This process started nine years ago and I would like to see this Bill enacted into a law,” he added.

Pension benefits outlined in the Bill include retirement pension, invalidity pension, funeral grant survivors’ and emigration benefits. Under its provident fund, members will enjoy tax-exempt: invalidity, withdrawal, emigration, age, and survivors’ benefits.

The proposed NSSF Bill 2012 seeks to position the fund as a public mandatory pension security scheme covering all employees in the formal sector and a voluntary scheme for the self-employed and informal sector workers.