- Ikolomani MP Bernard Shinali has come up with a bill seeking to provide benefits to employees who might be declared redundant.
- Countries that have enacted unemployment insurance are the United States of America, Germany, Austria, France.
One of the lessons learned during the Covid-19 pandemic was to stay cautious and ready in case your organisation renders you redundant.
Most organisations were shut down while others went under because 'business was bad'. Some decided to even downsize as they slashed salaries of their people.
But even without Covid, some countries had already thought of cushioning employees whenever they were retrenched.
Countries both globally and locally decided to come up with a fund that could help cushion sacked employees.
For example in South Africa, the system dubbed as unemployment insurance system is governed by the Unemployment Insurance (UI) Act, of 2001.
Here, the employee contributes a standard one percent of their salaries every month, and it is matched by their employer.
This amount (a total of 2 percent) is contributed to the fund by the employer and the contribution is mandatory for employees who have been employed for more than a month.
The system has worked well in South Africa with a Kenyan Member of Parliament emulating it.
The Bill dubbed 'The Unemployment Insurance Authority Bill, 2022' has been tabled in Kenya's parliament and as a result, is expected to be debated.
The draft Bill was tabled by Ikolomani MP Bernard Shinali on September 7,2023.
He has proposed the establishment of an Unemployment Insurance Fund to which both the employer and employee will contribute.
"The objective of the Fund is to provide benefits to employees who become unemployed or their respective beneficiaries in order to cushion them against harmful socio-economic effects of unemployment," the bill reads in part.
Shinali in the Bill says contribution will be appropriated by Parliament from the national budget.
The funds will be provided by a County Government as well as donations and grants.
The draft has also proposed the establishment of the Unemployment Insurance Authority as a corporate body with a Board comprising a chairperson and nine other members.
According to the Bill, functions of the Authority will include; administering the Fund and advising the Labour Cabinet Secretary on unemployment insurance policies and legislation.
The Bill also proposes the establishment of the Unemployment Insurance Authority.
This is a body comprising a chairperson and nine other members.
This team is expected to advice the Cabinet secretary in charge of labour on the policies that surround work and the legislations thereof.
This team is expected to have staff members who will help the team leader to discharge its mandate.
The Authority will also be advising both levels of government on policy matters on unemployment and unemployment insurance.
"....while also facilitating the implementation of such policies relating to unemployment insurance," the Bill read in part.
The draft bill proposed has been benchmarked against South Africa, United States and Austria.
Countries that have enacted unemployment insurance are the United States of America, Germany, Austria, France, Norway, Belgium, Netherlands, South Africa, Italy, United Kingdom and Sweden.
Others are Finland, Israel, Iceland, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland.