A parliamentary committee is considering lowering the retirement age from the current 60 to 55 to give young people a chance to be employed as civil servants.
On Thursday, August 3, the Labor Relations Commission of the National Assembly announced that it would introduce amendments to the bill, which will set the upper retirement age at 55, as part of its deliberations on the Civil Service Commission (Amendment) Bill 2023.
The bill, proposed by Benjamin Gachir, a member of the Central Legislative Assembly for the Embakasi, would amend existing law by stipulating that police officers cannot hold office for more than six months.
Kangundo MP Fabian Muri said the commission should propose further amendments to the bill to lower the retirement age if it is in the interest of young people.
“We need to think more and bring the age down to 55 to make the young people of this country proud,” Muri said.
He declared that if the committee was unable to factor in the age-reducing amendments, he would personally propose changes.
Kilifi Southern MP Ken Chonga said the commission should amend the necessary legal provisions on retirement age.
“To amend that provision, we need to know how the retirement age of 60 was set,” Chongga said.
Lunga Lunga MP Mangalle Munga said while supporting lowering the retirement age, we need to cater to the growth of young people.
“Why 60 years? It should be 55 to make room for young people. It’s a proposition, it may be popular, it may be unpopular, but that’s what I think.” ‘ said Munga.
“I have given the commission room to amend the bill, but it should not lose its meaning and intent,” Gatil said.
If passed, the proposal would mean the majority of civil servants expected to retire in the next five years would return home early, imposing a burden on an already financially distressed government with higher pensions. It will be a move that will have far-reaching implications. Specification.
The retirement age was raised from 55 to 60 in 2009 as the government struggled to meet rising pension claims.
The State Treasury paid 69.22 billion lice in pensions and honoraria for the six months to December 2021.
A 2016 audit found that 35 percent of central government employees were between the ages of 51 and 60.
A total of 3,958 officials in 47 ministries retired, according to the Public Service Commission (PSC) annual report for fiscal year 2021/2022.
The Public Service Commission (Amendment) Bill 2023 proposes that a person may be appointed as a substitute for a period of at least 30 days and no longer than 6 months.
Under the proposed bill, a person would be appointed to office as a proxy only if he met all the qualifications for that particular officer.
“Representative appointments shall favor civil servants who are duly qualified and competent to perform their duties and shall not prejudice the prompt appointment and deployment of qualified personnel to relevant government offices,” the bill reads. ing.
If appointed as a proxy without the required qualifications, the appointment will be immediately revoked by the Civil Service Commission.
