More than 300 former employees of the Pyrethrum Board of Kenya (PBK) are appealing to the Ministry of Agriculture Cabinet Secretary(CS) Mithika Linturi to help them get their Kers2.5 billion pension arrears.
The spokesperson of the pensioners, Mr Harun Tinga, noted that they have not received their pensions for the past thirteen years.
Speaking in Nakuru, Tinga urged the CS to address the issue.
“Most of us are in our sunset years and might die before we are paid our dues, while others are ailing and are unable to pay hospital bills.”
To pay their outstanding debts, the distressed pensioners request the sale of 13 non-core properties around Nakuru City.
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The Pyrethrum Processing Company of Kenya (PPCK) Board, the PBK's successor, revealed last year that it had written to the National Treasury to request authorization to sell homes and plots of land in prestigious Nakuru City neighbourhoods to pay the retirees' outstanding debts.
Mr Tinga stated that the Cabinet has taken up the matter and asked Linturi to move the implementation process along quickly.
“Pensioners want a proper valuation of the assets, which were undervalued by government valuers. Some houses in Nakuru City are worth Kes800 million, but the government valuers want them to be sold at about Kes300 million,” stated Mr. Tinga.
The Pyrethrum Board of Kenya Staff Superannuation Scheme was established in 1991 as a defined benefit scheme with each member contributing five per cent of their salaries while the employer contributed 15 per cent.
This money was to be invested over time, and after the contributors attained the mandatory retirement age, they were supposed to be paid in a lump sum.
Pension regulations state that in case of reduction, the employee is supposed to enjoy full benefits, and in case of death, their families will claim the benefits.
However, the scheme started to experience financial difficulties in 2002 after their sponsors, the defunct Pyrethrum Board of Kenya, now PPCK, was rocked by years of mismanagement, corruption, and theft of public resources.
The workers filed a winding-up suit against the company at the High Court in Nairobi, which was granted in December 2016.
The then Attorney General, Githu Muigai, initiated the final process of winding up the debt-ridden pension scheme.
Once one of the best-run in the country in the 1980s, the scheme was finally put under receivership on May 27, 2017.
