Governors want retirement bill amended

Governors have vowed to challenge a proposed law on county pension scheme.

County chiefs say the County Retirement Scheme Bill, 2014 sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Kindiki Kithure (Tharaka Nithi) will threaten the effective management and security of pension of about 130,000 county employees.

The county bosses took issue with the proposed legislation, which will give Treasury powers to develop regulations for the operationalisation of the scheme and by extension become a national function.

At a consultative meeting at Boma Hotel with the Senate and Ministry of Labour, Council of Governors (CoG) Chairman Peter Munya and CoG Human Resources and Social Welfare Chairman James Ongwae said they were not consulted.

Munya and Ongwae appealed to the Senate through Speaker Ekwe Ethuro and Senate Committee of Labour Chairman Stewart Madzayo (Kilifi), to amend the bill and factor in their views.

"I am appealing to the Senate to either shelve the bill or allow for further consultations. Our views must be incorporated. If this is not done, we will have no option but to challenge its constitutionality in court," Munya said.

He continued: "This bill will create confusion at both levels of government because we are going to transfer county assets (monetary) to the national government."

He said the existing State-run pension schemes are not effectively managed.

"We are the biggest stakeholders. Enacting this bill will go against the Bill of Rights. We are even having difficulties remitting employees' contributions," said the Meru governor.

He said it is unacceptable to have a pension fund run by the national government yet the contributors are county government employees.

What is the difficulty in allowing counties have their own County Pension Fund? It is the mandate of the employees and their employees to be the key players," he said.

Ongwae said county governments are independent and capable of running their own affairs. He the law requires that county governments join existing national pension schemes, and they have been engaging the Transition Authority (TA) and county workers on the same.

The Kisii governor's committee came up with a report recommending that the two existing schemes - Local Pension Authority Trust (Lap trust) and Local Authority Pension Fund (Lap fund) - are left to die a natural death and counties to identify a new one.

The county bosses argued that all-inclusive deliberations would safeguard the pension benefits of those who were employed by the defunct local authorities.