- Parliament has received a legislative proposal to lower the statutory retirement age to 55.
- SRC chairperson Lyn Mengich said on Tuesday that the country's mandatory retirement age should remain at 60.
Image: FILE
The Salaries and Remunerations Commission (SRC) has opposed a proposal to lower the retirement age to 55.
Currently, the mandatory retirement age for public servants and teachers is capped at 60 years and 65 for those abled differently.
However, Parliament has received a legislative proposal to lower the statutory retirement age to 55.
Proponents of the proposal insist that the aim is to give more young people opportunities to grow in the service professionally.
But SRC chairperson Lyn Mengich said on Tuesday that the country's mandatory retirement age should remain at 60.
She argued that lowering the retirement age would force taxpayers to carry a higher pension liability, meaning that there would be more people on pension.
"You need to look at what's the common trend worldwide because that gives us a benchmark and of course, there are countries where there is no retirement age," she said on Spice FM.
"The conversation should be what works for Kenya. If you say people retire at 55 it means they are pensionable at 55 yet they are people who are still productive, they can contribute effectively to the country."
She further argued that it would be impractical to dispose of employees at a fairly young age while they still possess a rich experience that bolsters the Kenyan workforce.
The Public Service Commission(Amendment) Bill, 2023 is seeking to reduce the retirement age to 55.
In 2009, the government revised the retirement age from 55 to 60 years and provided five more years for all Kenyans living with disabilities across the public service.
At the time, the reason given for the review was that the government was struggling with a huge pension bill as more people retired from service.
The Bill, which was introduced by Embakasi Central MP Benjamin Gathiru, sought to amend the current Act by requiring no officer to serve in an acting capacity for more than six months.
In the six months to December 2021, the National Treasury paid out Sh69.22 billion in pension and gratuity payments.
An audit conducted in 2016 revealed that 35% of national government employees were between the ages of 51 and 60.
A total of 3,958 officers left the service in 47 ministries, departments, and agencies, according to the Public Service Commission’s (PSC) annual report for the Financial Year 2021/2022.