The government has begun the process of paying former councilors Sh2.6 billion ex-gratia owed to them.
Appearing before the Senate Labour and Social Welfare committee on Tuesday, National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Prof Njuguna Ndung’u said a memorandum has already been drawn for transmission to the Cabinet for approval.
Prof Ndung’u said that subject to the decision of the Cabinet, the National Treasury will factor the payment in the budget for the financial year ending June 2024.
He told the committee chaired by West Pokot Senator Julius Murgor that the payment comprises Sh2.3 billion in gratuity payment for 11,919 former councillors who served less than four continuous terms and Sh218 million for 328 councillors who served for four or more continuous terms.
“The recommendation on implementation of the Senate resolution to pay the former councilors happened during the subsistence of the last Cabinet and that it was imperative that the current Cabinet is apprised of the matter and be requested to approve the resultant financial commitment,” said Prof Ndung’u.
The ex-councilors began the push for the government to clear the one-off honoraria in 2013 with the chairperson for the former councilors caucus Mr Geoffrey Gitau saying that the former councillors, who served in different times between 1963 and 2012, had initially sought an honorarium of Sh1.5 million each which cumulatively could have been Sh14.4 billion.
However, a taskforce formed to look into their welfare recommended that they be paid each Sh550,000 before the National Treasury slashed the amount further to the current Sh200,000.
In 2021, former Treasury CS Ukur Yatani told senators that an inter-agency task-force report put the former councillors’ number at 12,247 and it would cost Sh18.3 billion to pay them a one-off gratuity/lump sum payment at the rate of Sh1.5 million as recommended by the Senate.
The recommended monthly pension would cost Sh4.4 billion in the first year of implementation, computed at the rate of Sh30,000 per month for each beneficiary.
In total therefore, he said, it would cost the exchequer Sh22.7 billion being the lump sum plus the monthly pension, in the first year of implementation of the Senate resolution.
He described how the former councillors used to earn Sh60 a month in 1963 which was then enhanced to Sh320 before it rose to Sh1,200 in the 80’s. This was then increased to Sh3,600 with more agitation from the councillors.
In 2002, the pay had been increased to Sh20,000 and the late President Mwai Kibaki enhanced the package with Sh5,000.
CS Ndung’u said that the government will consider enrolling the ex-councillors and their spouses to National Health Insurance Fund to benefit from the scheme and that the two ministries in consultation with relevant stakeholders will facilitate discussion on the proposal.
For her part, Labour CS Florence Bore told the committee that former councillors who are over 70 years are eligible for enrolment into the Inua Jamii Cash Transfer programme and that however the available resources are not adequate to register any additional person to the programme.
“Should resources be allocated to the programme, the enrolment process will be announced by the ministry and therefore eligible former councillors will be invited to avail themselves for registration, this programme is meant for people not benefitting from any other government safety net programmes” said Bore.
