Incase a new proposal bill to lower the retirement age is going to sail through, then teachers and civil servants will now go for retirement after hitting age 55 years.
According to the Public Service Commission Act 2017 Section 80(1) (a) and (b) , provisions indicate that a Public Officer shall retire from the service immediately the date he/she attains the mandatory retirement age.
current mandatory retirement age is 60 years for all teachers and civil servants and 65 years for those who are abled differently.
Even with this, parliamentary committee has received a proposal seeking to reduce the mandatory retirement age from the current 60 years to 55 years.
The plan is meant to give young people, more especially those who are jobless an opportunity to be employed in the public service posts.
According to the National Assembly’s Labour committee,in view of the Public Service Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2023, an amendment to the newly proposed law to reduce the retirement age to 55 will be implemented.
Embakasi Central MP Benjamin Gathiru who moved this motion seeks to to have current Act amended by ensuring that no officer should be serving under acting capacity beyond six months.
JSS learners taken through practicals on electricals and electronics during the first ever NITA Career Trade Fair at Machakos County on October 9th 2023; Image/File
Supporting this,the area MP of Kangundo, honourable Fabian Muli announced that incase the committee is to serve the interest of the youth,it therefore calls for immediate amendments to the Bill to reduce the retirement age.
Back in the year 2009 , the government revised the mandatory retirement age from 55 years to 60 years .
It was revealed that the reason for revision was as a result of the government facing struggle to cope with a growing pensions bill from retired officers by then.
I pray that the proposal sails through like yesterday;I also pray that the state has enough resources to pay the large population of octogenarians exiting the civil service enmass immediately.
This is ill informed. Considering that most Kenyans now get jobs when they above 45 due to the joblessness just how many years Wil they work before they retire? Does the government have enough to pay those aged 55 for their retirement benefits?
Let Kenyans work as so long as they are healthy and energetic just like in the US.
For instance they should consider increasing the age of retirement for the judges and university lecturers to 80years as this will help to benefit from their experience and rich knowledge as well as addressing the shortage.
If they are going to minimize the retirement age then they should consider employing individuals past 35 years, not just Kenyan youths under 35 years as is the norm. There are people struggling to get employed within the age gap of 35-45 years. 10 to 15 years can make a major difference in ones life.
These MPs are lazy thinkers. Why not perhaps say one retires after attaining 40 years of public service experience. So if you joined at 50, you work till you are 90 and if joined at 20 you retire at 60.
Workers should be encouraged to toil till they get senile ..am 60 yrs and getting forgetful and I represent alot of us..
Retain us at your peril.
When will the new energetic graduates work.. however some should be considered for other duties..
Politicians too should step down # 65 years.. or if they set the retirement age ..then another clause follows that noone should vie if 10+ years after agreed civil service deadline.
@55 retirement does not tarry, review it to be 65 years.
This is correct for us as civil servants as we feel for our young people.Politicians must also set themselves a retirement age of 60 as most of them are no more capable.Thanks!
Then the state would need a pension reform just as it happened in Nigeria some decades ago. The reform will introduce contributory pension and shift the contributions to be handled by the private sector who in turn will be the one to take care of payment burden.
Bizarre and weird thinking from our mps and a cheap way of seeking popularity among the youth. They should be thinking of creating jobs and not retiring workers when they are are at their prime of productivity in terms of intellectual capacity, experience and training. These mps are criminalising age !
As a matter of fact,the govt cannot even afford to pay retiring public servants their pension dues,having to wait for years while living in abject poverty. The mps can as well enact a law that prohibits anybody above 55 to view for elective posts so that youth can get employment.
Civil cervants have loans to service, No pay increase for so many years,how will they service these loans.Be human to workers. ,Mps get a lot of money. within 1year one has made millions while a civil servant is struggling with loans to educate children.
This should be implemented with immediate effect!! Many youths are jobless while other are dying at work places!!!
Politicians should also retire politics at the same age civil servants retire, 55.
Long over due…kudos….
Retiring early will create jobs for youths..Many institutions are under staff ,The top management are not retiring they lobby for their renewal of contracts each time they expire and again find it difficult to employ new staff..let the retirement age be 55.
All elective positions including mp’s , MCA n senators shohld also have ther term limit capped at two terms to afford all those seeking to reptesent electrorates a chance.
This is purely personal interest by politicians. Do not be misguided that your son or daughter will get a job when old guys leave service. The government wants to solve a problem with another problem, instead of doing it’s fair part of creating jobs for the youth. No one should retire to create an opportunity for someone else. That is a misleading policy
Selfish thinking by our mps. Why can’t they also set their term limit. Stop popularizing yourselves among the youths
This law should also apply to MPs. And if you ask me, I certainly don’t agree with age 55 retirement. They should also look at age 35 issue. Why is it not being employed, why they are (MP) over 60 and yet are not retired.
It should happen like yesterday especially those who got employment when they were still young.
After 55 yrs somebody is no longer very productive . Let the young and energetic youths take over.
The young teachers need the elderly to give them guidance and training. In my post as teacher I’ve trained a lot of young teachers. To get rid of the elderly teachers will definitely cause problems for education.
Retirement age should be 50 so jobless can get chances
This is misguided the retirement age should be increased. The argument are not valid. Look people are living longer getting jobs late and public service jobs are so few to absorb the large number of unemployed youth.
There are better ways of creating employment than reducing the retirement age. Reduction of retirement age from 60-55 will only create a pulse i.e a sudden creation of vacancies in the civil service for maybe 2 years after which we will be back to the same point we started. Also, the government sees it as better to pay somebody a salary as he works than pay somebody who’s seated at home. This is very lazy thinking of the Embakasi mp. Let the government promote investment, reduce cost of loans and other factors of business. This will create jobs continuously. Wabunge waache ujinga. All over the world, retirement ages are being revised upwards. Thank you.
Will the treasury disburse the retirement benefits immediately an officer’s retirement falls due? Or will they have to wait until he/she etiree die of old age ailments, stress and pecuniary embarrassment?
At 55 that’s the age workers is at his/her prime productive stage. Most of the workers at managerial positions are about this age.. secondly the government will be paying heavy pensions to persons still young and retired. Let’s 60 remain
MP’s must be people that are creative thinkers. How much are teachers paid? The PL2;are taxed R7 000 and R3000 GEPF plus R5000 medical and R10 000 , tuitions fees , groceries , insurances and clothings in SA ,they are taxed everywhere, One that is employed at the age of 35 years , then after 20t Years one must be out , without saving, what is he going to do. The government must fund the people to create jobs.
Fine let us retire, then the govt will educate all the children in primary high school and college of the retirees at 55.let the mp look at the burden of this age group some who got employed at 45. Even in developed countries where education is free upto university for citizens and better health care, the retirement age is 65.
The pension burden is real and the mps are lazy thinkers.
Our MPigs should also retire at the age of 60.We don’t to need recycle octogenarian civil servants in the Parliament,parastatals and cabinet under the guise of advisors.
While the legislator’s proposal for Civil servants retirement age to be reduced to 55 is welcome, let him also ensure that the Age limit for vieying for elective/ legislative/ political positions is also capped at 55 and incorporated in this Bill. If a civil servant becomes senile at 55, so is the politician and anyone else. Let’s ALL go/ retire at 55 and let our children get our jobs. I mean ALL.
It’s good for civil servants to retire at the age of 60 yrs since he/ she will be energetic to do his/her duties at .
I totally agree with this proposal to amendment the retirement age to 55 to pave way for the big number of the young generation to get job opportunity and to the retiree time to reflect on other issues. I support this to pass without delay.
People have li picked loans that will run for the next seven years; how do you retire them instantly? You want to kill people?
65 years is ideal age for retirement and you will have gotten more valuable time of your life time to work and very active mind in the sense that one has reached your best
optimal level of service and it will reduce the fear of redundancy and other factors inclusive such as how you see the other side of not working and doing anything tangible
This should also be applicable to members of parliament. They should actually start with MP’s. Those people are too old and they’ve occupied posts which younger public servants yearn for a chance to grow professionally .
People will not consider going back to school for masters and PhD coz the moment to graduate, you are due for retirement. If they can give retirees money at hand, then no problem but if someone someone has to chase their money until they die, then it will be sad.
This will help people especially Teachers to plan in advance for how they can manage their finances, and also to prepare for the time out of what they started earlier building the financial trend.
If really the concern is productivity, then I would think age should be a major consideration for elective positions than it is for civil servants/teachers as this is where critical national policies are crafted. Shouldn’t these individuals be looking for ways to create jobs for the ever increasing number of youth… surely this suggestion of lowering retirement age is a populist adventure and glaringly is
discriminatory as it does not suggest what these 55yrs’ oldies wd do considering that at that age, their job options are limited.
Let’s not forget that due to low government salaries, there is very little chance that they have any meaningful savings (most if not all, survive on loans!). I’m almost sure that after a short period, another goon will want to slash it to 40 years…and on and on, on a descending trajectory.
There should be no discrimination.
Article 27 of the constitution of Kenya 2010 criminalizes discrimination.
Politicians and chairpersons and board members of several bodies do in not have retirement age.
Magistrates and Judges retire at the age of 70.
It is therefore hypocritical for our politicians to enact a law limiting retirement of teachers and civil servants.
If fairness is to be exercised ,
Let all public servants including politicians, Doctors, Judges and even Union officials retire at age 70.
Any one should have the option of retiring at any age from 50 years.
Benefits should be paid immediately one retires.
These mps are senile, let any one of them above 55 go home and watch from there! Or they belong to another ‘race’?? We need youthful politicians with smaller stomachs.
Most the Kenyans get job at the age of 30 ,after all the struggles, retirement age should be 60 to 65 less than that will increase the rate at which people will get depression and the like related diseases ,
The government must have its own way of getting salaries for civil workers, and look for solutions .we need those with more experience ,for example doctors with no experience cannot handle major issues. Hence all are needed with or without for the growth of any country .
They should do it as early as yesterday nimechoka na hii kazi
I’ve just realised why we r where we are in Kenya. If civil servants become senile n unproductive at 55, n 99% of our politicians and law makers are above 55yrs, then kenya is lead by sinility, retirees, who have already bn declared unusable.
Oh ok and most of bill makers are over 70years and sleep during the important bills because of age.Make sure this bill of 55year retirement touches every Kenyan .politicians too.No retiree is above the law.
Retired mother.Nakuru.
Mp, senators,mcas should also retire when they reach 55
It is unfortunate that our laws in our countries depends on parliamentarians who have qualified to be our uncestors, and have now worked twice in their lives, as public servants and parliamentarians. There is no fairness in politics as parliamentarians don’t see it fit for public servants to retire with enough money and what they know is to remain in parliament and make enough money and receive kickbacks. I support 60 years parliamentarians retirement age.
Let the mps hurry an implement it. These aged individuals are giving us sleepless nights. Retire them at 55yrs. Let the new generation be employed. If its implemented mine mdosi will go next yr . She is toxic.
The writer is as confused as the government of the day. How does retiring at 55 reduce the wage bill yet the government will have to employ young people to fill positions as those left in service will be promoted to fill the retirees vacant seat. Make it make sense!!
Even in France the retirement age was increased. The government will be paying pension to almost 1/3rd of its recurrent finance for salaries to still energetic people who are idle. I think we have very lazy legislators who don’t engage their minds to research for the best practices. The problem with the present legislature is that it’s composed of commission seekers, fraudsters and dealers. Most of them have never had corporate governance or civil service experience.
I don’t think it is wise to compell the government employees to retire at age 55 because we don’t get bursaries for our children,iam still paying tertiary fees for them but if the government can make provision for that and they also must make a way for younger poloticians
The right criteria should be “first in, first out” If you work for atleast 25 years, you should be ready for mandatory retirement.
The government should then bear the burden of ensuring that youths are employed just after training ideally before age 30.
If workers are employed at 40 and forced to retire at 55, then it means most workers will educate their younger kids after retirement barely 15 years after PNP employment and this is unfair.
On the other hand, workers who are employed earlier have increased chances of development and educating their kids before the mandatory retirement age of 55.
The Government should make their decision on retirement age of Teachers and Civil servants very very fast so that the concerned lot prepare in good time; by for example not taking up huge loans!
Thank you very much. Let this law be implemented as soon as possible. We are worked our part we are old and out. Let’s give our youth right of way to work. IMPLEMENT, IMPLEMENT IMPLEMENT.
They are doing more harm than good. Teachers are contributing two pension plans since this government took over. Reducing the retirement age might cause frustrations to so many loaned teachers…is that what they want?
In teaching,( basic education)the deficit is already at over 100,000 thousand teachers- why can’t they bridge the gap first because retiring teachers 55 and a bove will create a bigger challenge.
There is need for the MPs to plan how to create jobs in their constituencies using CDF.
Our MPs and Senators should not be efficient in enacting laws for others but not themselves. Can MPs and Senators accept to retire at 55? What is special about them? People should work so long as they are productive. MPs and Senators should be at the forefront of creating employment. If they are unable to create employment then they are not fit to be either MPs or Senators. An MP or a Senator who does not think of how to create jobs but focuses on reducing the retirement age of those already employed should be impeached.
Sawa
Only lazy people want to retire at 55. Why the government will even consider such a move is beyond me. Retirement age should be between 65 to 70, and it must be the employee’s decision when he/she wants to retire – depending on their good health. We as civil servants don’t want to stand in the SASSA line if we can work towards a pension fund to support ourselves.
Why are the leaders of this country, in Parliament so old? How do they get to be appointed beyond the age of 55? A member of Parliament is a cival servant, a government employee, who’s salary is paid out of taxis contributed by us, the working class. Now they want to make it maditory for civil servants to retire at 55. Surely this should also apply to ALL MEMBERS OF PARLiAMENT, INCLUDING THE PRESIDENT.
Now the realisation that the people of the age of 55 and older are the knowledgeable people in most working environments and are they able to empart their knowledge to the younger generation and guide them in the working situation.
Why are they singling out only teachers and civil servants? What about SANDF, SAPS, Nursing fraternity, etcetera.
Scrap the idea of mandatory retirement at 55, it makes no sense.
Retiring teachers and civil servants at 55 will solve one problem but a more critical problem where retirees will be left with huge loans unpaid, no monthly pension,no medical insurance, and this will send many to early deaths.
What the proposers of the bill should do is to ensure that retirees are sorted out immediately they leave service.. This will even attract many to opt for early retirement.
The limit should be on the years of service not age.
Lets not forget that we are parents of unemployed youth. It is wise to leave vacancies to our youth so that they enjoy money as we did. They have families but not employed. They took time to education, wested a lot of parents’ money and are near to pension age without jobs. We may take it as a point that one is employed at 45 years old and be pensioned at the age of 55 years as poor idea but its better than to reach 65 five years of age not working. The idea should be implemented as early as yesterday.Let it be implemented today and be changed tomorrow.
It should not only be civil servants and teachers.Politicians should also retire at 55 years to allow the youth to take over their political offices.Why are politicians making laws to retire other Kenyans at 55 while themselves continue to occupy political offices at over 60 years age?
Most of the 55yrs old have children in Colleges & high schools. What will become of them if active income is extinguished, bearing in mind Pension takes a decade to be released by treasury.
What about those who will be employed at the age of 40? They will spend entire 4years at varsity for serving only 10 years?
As teachers and/or any other civil servants you are also parents to graduates. There is a rise in number of jobless graduates in many fields who have been trained during undergraduate studies, attachment and internship, this training I think its enough and they are qualified. Reducing the retirement age is also key to consider the young population that is ageing everyday that they should also reap the fruits of education that you always told them are sweet than the roots I rest my case. Musikwamilie hayo matunda sana tuna yahitaji pia nasi.
And will the government be able to pay pension for all the teachers and civil servants aged 55-60 all at go.
It’s good to be reasonable.
If they assure them that they will get the pension within 3months after I got retirement majority are very ready.
I think the government intend to send the aged to the grave early by stressing them
Selfish gain in our legislation and ill thinking in house, 60 to 55yr.The government will end up paying alot of money coz teachers in service have letters of employment (agreement ) hence KNUT be prepared to move to court
If the government will pay the pensions immediately well and good. This Mp is not creative at all. The jobs will not even be shared among all Kenyans. Let’s wait and see.It will be a drop in the sea. I wish then well.
Someone to talk to sponsor of bill
from makueni to shelve it till 2027 thereabouts. Adequate notice need to considered.Housing project is already employing youths and Government can keep initiating other strategies like seeking jobs abroad ,Haiti , create more industries etc .Transferring unemployment problem from youth to the seniors isn’t smart or creative thinking.If 60 is on higher side then have a compromise limit of 58 to cushion those to be affected to prepare managing some areas such as loans,children education,loss of earnings etc
Just wondering when they will set the retirement age for politicians or rather who is to set it for them. Making 55 years optional but not mandatory for retirement would be okay for those who are willing.
Ask anybody working who has reached the age of 55 and he/she will tell you they are still very strong physically and energetic. They use their experience to reduce wastage and mentor the younger generation at the work place. They combine wisdom and high sense of responsibility. They don’t even participate in Union Strikes because they know what’s at stake. They have huge loans that have already been calculated to be deducted from their payslips until the age of 60 yrs. Secondly unlike the younger workers whos children are in Baby class, Nursery and Primary schools, at 55yrs most of their children are in colleges and University’s paying huge amounts of fees. Thirdly these workers are not the same. Some have trained certificates others have Diplomas while others have Degrees Masters and PhDs. Some do desk jobs while others are highly trained Doctors and Engineers. How can you treat them equally and say they should all retire at 55yrs.