“I regret having ever worked for the government,” says Mama Pauline Kiragu before she falls into deep silence.

This is the cry for justice for millions of aging Kenyans — who worked in the civil service — waiting for pension payments running into billions of shillings.

After many years of toil, most of them have retired home lonely fighting vagaries of old age, sickly, weak, dependent and poor.

Thousands are unable to access their savings for upkeep and medical care. Others have fallen victims to fraudsters who have siphoned away their life savings. Rising inflation has also eaten into the pensioners’ savings.

Since her retirement 10 years ago, the ailing Kiragu has knocked almost every corner of relevant government offices looking for an official who can tell her the whereabouts of the savings she did for her sunset years.

In her rural home in Nyeri, Kiragu, not her real name, wakes up every day hoping that her mobile phone will ring with some good news from Afya House, Health ministry headquarters where she worked for decades.

In the search, she has been a victim of crooks in expensive suits offering to help her. “On June 20, 2022 after I had been paid some little money, I was referred to the Ministry headquarters for further help.

“I travelled from Nyeri with my documents for payment processing between Afya House and the National Treasury,” said the 64-year old medical imaging expert who requested anonymity.

At the Ministry, she met a middle-aged man who offered to help after she narrated her ordeal. “He told me to go home, he will handle the matter, so I left,” she said.

From that point it was a constant telephone conversation for a period of one year, when the officer at Afya House finally sent her a number: 37045, and told her; “That’s your pension number.”

Today she has come to terms that the officer she had a lot of trust in is part of an organised fraud network milking senior citizens.

“I had a lot of trust in him, and kept talking to him up to the end of the year. In September 2023, I lost my patience because I did not understand why such a process was taking too long – and went to Huduma Centre in Nyeri to find out,” she narrated.

“After presenting the relevant identification documents to the Huduma Centre, I was told my name doesn’t exist in the system, and even that number was used to pay someone’s pension over a decade ago. I was shocked, and the officer told me the current numbers have six digits.”

That is when she realised that all her pension had been stolen.

Basks in glory

“I pursued further but was redirected to the ministry, which I had already been to. I even called the Ministry of Health officer, and asked him whether the number he gave me was fake. He said the number was given to him from the Treasury.”

She was last week referred to the Banking Fraud Investigation Unit (BFIU).

Benson Ambuni, the National Chairman and CEO of the Retirees Benefits and Claims Welfare Association of Kenya (REBECLWA-K) revealed yesterday that retirees – especially those who are; or were on non-contributory pension schemes – go through several challenges that will require serious goodwill from senior officers at pensions department to have the same streamlined.

“The most saddening thing is the pretence at Pension’s Department at the Bima House that things are well for pensioners,” he said.

As an Association, Ambuni said, it will partner with all concerned players like pension administrators, employers and government to ease the pain on pensioners. “Retirees have challenges not limited to pension benefits as some Sacco societies also torture members so much when it comes to refunds upon retirement,” Ambuni said.

Victims who spoke to People Daily blamed the situation on lack of regulations on payment of pensions, impunity by employers, corruption and red-tape in government.

In Meru, 57-year old Joseph Muthuri battling medical deafness is being tossed from one office to another in search of his father’s pension on behalf of the mother, the principal beneficiary.

Justus M’Arimi Raiji, born in 1933 in Abogeta village, South Imenti constituency, Meru worked as an agricultural extension officer at the Ministry of Agriculture before his demise on September 25, 2019 aged 85 years.

He earned Sh5,000 per month, part of it, which went into his social protection account.
The beneficiary, his wife Velice Tirindi, 82, is not in a position to pursue her late husband’s retirement perks.

The Pensions Act says: “There shall continue to be paid a dependants’ pension, on the terms and subject to the conditions set out in subsection (2), to the widow or the children of the officer for a period of five years next following the date of the officer’s death, at the rate of the officer’s pension at the date of his death.”

On August 10, 2020, Tirindi submitted a pension declaration form through his son, Muthuri, but since then it has been a game of musical chairs.

Mzee Arimi Raiji’s account: 024905119487 at Post Bank, Meru was credited up to February 28, 2023 according to Muthuri on January 16, 2024 when he was at the bank to follow up on the matter, he learnt that the payments had been stopped.

Muthuri explained that since he was made aware that his father’s account had been credited up to February 28, 2023, last week he visited the bank to find out if it can release the 46-months emoluments.

“I have to get a letter from the Deputy County Commissioner for the closure of my father’s account to allow the money be transferred to my mother then it’s moved to the Pensions Head Office in Nairobi, but I learnt there’s no such policy as withholding money until the funds are remitted on a monthly basis to the beneficiaries account,” he said.

The latest Auditor-General’s report on pensions unearths inefficiencies at the National Treasury’s pension department for delays in the processing and payment of retirement dues to pensioners.

“That claims are received by the pension department with errors, commissions or missing documents means there is either lack of keenness by the receiving officers or possibility of loss of document during claim movement,” says an audit report.

In a performance audit report on the administration of public service pensions scheme before Parliament, the Auditor-General raised questions why the department could not address issues like late submission of claims, incomplete and erroneous claims by government agencies, which have been blamed for the delayed processing on time.

The processing and payment of the terminal benefits is supposed to take 21 days from the date a duly completed and supported claim is accepted at the pension department as per the citizen delivery charter. However, the audit report reveals that some details take years.

 

 

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