Members of Parliament (MPs) who are retired are set to receive a monthly pension of Sh100,000 for life if current MPs approve the revised changes to the National Assembly’s retirement benefits law.
Parliament will on Wednesday, vote on the Parliamentary Pensions (Amendment) Bill, 2019, which wants to impose a minimum pension for lawmakers who served between 1984 and 2001.
If the bill passes, more than 375 former MPs will see their monthly pension rise to above Sh100,000 from the current low of Sh33,000, adding additional burden to taxpayers in the quest to keep former lawmakers happy in retirement.
The Treasury is currently spending more to keep retired civil servants comfortable in retirement compared to health (Sh111 billion), water (Sh83.3 billion), and energy (Sh72 billion.) and with the new law, even more.
The Parliamentary Budget Office has estimated that if the Bill is enacted into law, the cost of sustaining the former MPs will rise to Sh15.075 million per month or Sh180.9 million annually.
To add salt to injury, the payout will be backdated to July 2010, offering the former MPs millions of shillings in arrears.
“That the Bill be amended by deleting clause 2 and substituting therefor the following new clause in sub-section (1) (b) by deleting the word ‘two’ and substituting, therefore, the word ‘one’,” the committee said in new amendments to the Bill.