The County Assemblies Pensions Scheme bill, 2024 was committed to the Senate Standing Committee on Labour. During the month the Senate Committee reached out to key stakeholders to make their submissions on the bill, these stakeholders include, the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA)County Pension Fund (CPF), Local Authorities Pension Trust Fund (LAPFUND), and the National Treasury.
KRA in its submissions noted that the bill should be aligned to the definition of income products with that of the Retirement Benefits Authority (RBA). They also pointed out the redundancy of Clause 39, given the Income Tax Act’s governance over pension bills. LAPFUND highlighted the bill’s duplications and conflict with existing laws, such as the County Government Retirement Scheme (CGRS) Act of 2019. They proposed merging pension schemes to avoid these issues and raised concerns about the bill’s restrictions on member’s autonomy and the legal implications of fund transactions without member consent.
The National Treasury emphasized that the bill ought to be comprehensive to include all state and public officers in the County Governments and the need for the bill to align with RBA standards. CAF highlighted their key issues which included the need to align the legislations to the Parliamentary Pensions Act, broaden the definition of pensionable emoluments and the need to review the contributory rates for both the employer and the employees. CAF further reiterated the importance of maintaining a separate scheme for county assemblies and County Executives.