Govt owes dead, injured civil servants Sh25 billion in insurance benefits: Senator Olekina

The government is risking legal action over non-payment of billions of shillings in insurance benefits to families of dead or injured civil servants.

This follows revelations that none of the benefits stipulated in the Public Service Superannuation Scheme (PSSS) Act and other government documents have been paid for years despite claims being made.

In a motion on the floor of the Senate, Narok Senator Ledama Olekina said the government owes at least Sh25 billion to the families of 4,094 teachers who died and 30,000 who contracted occupational diseases.

He also noted that over 1,000 outstanding death and disability claims from the families of police and prison officers have been registered and claims filed but are yet to be settled.

Mr Olekina now wants the Senate’s Labour and Social Welfare committee to find out when the government, through the Ministry of Public Service, plans to release the benefits.

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“The committee should state whether the nominated beneficiaries or executors or rightful owners have received the death in service or disability benefits as required by law,” said the senator.

The PSSS Act, Public Service Superannuation Guidelines Handbooky and the Human Resources Policies and Procedures Manual for the Public Service of May 2016 provide for these benefits.

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Life insurance policy

The PSSS Act provides that the government shall maintain a life insurance policy providing a disability benefit for each member of the PSSS Fund of at least five times the member’s annual pension.

It provides that each member of the scheme shall contribute at the rate of 7.5 per cent, which shall be deducted from his or her monthly pensionable emoluments, with the government making a contribution for each member at the rate of not less than 15 per cent of the member’s monthly emoluments. The government’s contribution is a direct charge on the Consolidated Fund.

Although the government has mandated the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) to insure public servants, the families of those who have died or been injured in the line of duty do not know when they will be compensated.

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This includes remittance of death and disability benefits to members of the scheme, medical benefits, the Work Injury Benefit Act (Wiba) and group personal accident insurance.

Government institutions covered by the PSSS include the National Police Service, Kenya Prisons Service, Teachers Service Commission, civil servants, National Youth Service and all judges except the Chief Justice and Deputy Chief Justice.

The payment of death and disability insurance claims is a statutory obligation on the trustees of the PSSS, as provided for in the PSSS Act, which means that all public servants who suffer accidental injury, occupational disease or death in the line of duty are entitled to compensation.

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Section 30 of the PSSS Act states that the trustees of the board shall cause the administrator to pay the death benefit under the life insurance policy in favour of the dependants of the deceased.

But according to Mr Olekina, the government is yet to compensate the affected families, even though the claims were filed years ago.

Financial exposure

“The financial exposure of the government arising from such errors and omissions is quite huge and if any of the civil servants or the next of kin of deceased civil servants were to seek redress, it would be a huge embarrassment to the government,” warned Mr Olekina.

The Narok senator wants the Labour committee to find out whether the PSSS board of trustees has conducted an audit and documented all death and disability claims from institutions covered by the PSSS Act that have not been settled since 2021, when the Act came into force.

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