Former Members of Parliament will be getting at least Ksh100,000 per month.
This is after legislators pass an amendment to the Parliamentary Pensions Acts.
MPs who retired between 1984 and 2001 are set to receive a monthly pension of Ksh100,000 for life under revised changes to the National Assembly’s retirement benefits law.
The monthly pension for former MPs increased from the current low of Ksh33,000 to as much as Ksh125,000.
The Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) projected that the government will be paying about Sh15.1 million per month.
With the recommendation to backdate the payments to July 2010, PBO said it would cost about Sh1.76 billion in the first year of implementing the Bill.
“The annual pension payment would amount to approximately Sh180.9 million assuming there are currently about 160 ex-MPs and about 130 widows/widowers,” PBO said.
Under the law, their dependants will be entitled to about half of the set monthly pay for the spouse’s lifetime.
A second category of 80 MPs, who have been excluded from pension yet served for two terms before 2002, will get the handsome payout.
The payments will bring ex-MPs at par with their colleagues who served after 2002 and are entitled to at least Sh125,000 monthly upon serving two terms.
The remaining 80 will get a single payment of Sh11.9 million to date and the Sh100,000 monthly for life.
On Tuesday, National Assembly Minority leader John Mbadi, who sponsored the proposal, defended the Bill as hinged on a noble intention.
He told the Star it is to take care of former MPs currently “earning nothing but are entitled to pension perks”.
The ODM chair said some of the former lawmakers are paid as low as Sh2,000 which can barely cater to their needs, more so healthcare.
“It is to cater to ageing Kenyans who served Parliament and need money for medication. We have seen so many of them dying and we cannot turn a blind eye to their plight,” the Suba South MP said.
