Building Singapore while impoverishing pensioners

The “tumbocracy” at the institution is evident in the individuals running the system. No public official would want their job if it did not come with a gravy train of corruption. NSSF has such individuals in droves. Given the wealthy officials running NSSF, one can easily conclude where the money for dead pensioners goes.

If nurses, doctors and teachers struggle to access their well and justly earned pension, God knows what happens to the illiterate and semi-literate contributors in the informal sector, who have little understanding of their rights. Medics and teachers are key workers who command respect in any just society and are rewarded handsomely as society benefits from their input. Teaching is a noble profession in all senses of the word, except in Kenya.

Singapore is the proverbial Canaan for the current government. I would urge its officials to visit the website for Singapore’s Ministry of Finance to know how to create that Canaan. According to Singapore’s Ministry of Finance, the lion’s share of the country’s budget goes to education, health and investment in infrastructure.

Two things stood out for me on the vision Singapore has. First, it invests to support “future growth”, and second, it invests in “our people”. These are two things that Kenya cannot do as the government gives with one hand and takes with the other.

With corruption deep-set in Kenya, one is left wondering about the mindset of the serial thieves of public funds. The most troubling cabal of thieves are the ones that involve families. The alleged heist at Kenya Women Teachers Association (Kewota) involves female teachers whose deductions were being funnelled through third parties and swindled by officials. This was allegedly happening with the full blessings of some officials at the Teachers Service Commission.

Essentially, public workers have become ATMs for officials who ought to protect their present and future earnings. Pension is a cushion for old age. There is nothing more heart-wrenching than raiding the accounts of older members of society who have worked hard during their lifetime to serve and expect to be looked after when they are infirm. Corrupt Kenyan officials couldn’t get any lower than eyeing contributions made by hard-working individuals. This is now beyond theft; it is pure sociopathy.

Deductions from payslips for later benefits to the contributors is money that still belongs to them. The spread of corruption to workers’ deductions is corruption having gone too far. If corruption was tackled and those responsible were made to pay back as a deterrence, we wouldn’t be playing catch up with thieves.

Corruption is clearly getting out of hand and is bound to make Kenyans lose confidence in any system that should be protecting them. If your employer is the first to scam you, there are very few other places one would gain confidence to invest in. This is something that is bound to have a negative impact on the economy and the social fabric overall.

Perhaps it is time to consider giving workers the right to make contributions towards their pension as they deem fit. NSSF is clearly not fit for such a purpose. The other thing to consider is to ensure that public workers who contribute to pensions managed by the government are able to receive their pensions automatically as soon as they hit the age of retirement. They do not have to be forced to travel to Nairobi. This only creates another route for them to be scammed by officials who demand a bribe to get what is rightfully theirs. We still have file hoarding for bribes even in this digitised government era.

Singapore cannot be built on the back of corruption. The issue of theft of deductions from workers is something that needs to be taken seriously, stopped and those responsible punished.

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Ms Guyo is a legal researcher, [email protected], @kdiguyo.