TSC Retirement Age.The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) offers retirement to teachers over 50.
The commission directed county and subcounty directors to choose a retirement sensitization venue in a memo.
Teachers will hold sensitization sessions in their subcounties this week and next.
The training occurs as parliamentarians craft a law to retire teachers and civil officials over 55.
Pension bills are estimated to average roughly Sh210 billion annually in the next three financial years as 85,000 teachers and state officials retire.
A public officer retires from the service when they reach the statutory retirement age under Section 80(1)(a) and (b) of the Public Service Commission Act 2017.
The required retirement age is between 60 and 65 for disabled people.
However, the parliamentary committee is exploring lowering the required retirement age from 60 to 55 to allow young individuals to work in the public service.
The Labour Committee of the National Assembly will offer an amendment to the Public Service Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2023, to set the retirement age at 55
To assist the youth, Kangundo MP Fabian Muli suggested that the committee make more retirement age reduction adjustments to the bill.
“We need to think further and reduce the age to 55 to make the youth of this country proud,” Mr. Muli remarked.
If the committee doesn’t include the age reduction amendment, he’ll present it himself. Kilifi South MP Ken Chonga said the committee must change retirement age laws.
“We need to know how the 60-year retirement age was determined so we can amend those provisions,” Mr. Chonga said.
Mangale Munga, a Lunga MP, supports lowering the retirement age but says young people must be accommodated.
Why 60 years? It should be 55 years old to accommodate youth. Mr. Munga added, “That proposal may be popular or unpopular, but that is my opinion.”
“I have given the committee leeway to amend the bill, but we should not lose the meaning and its intention,” Mr. Gathiru remarked.
If the measures pass, most civil officials due to retire in the next five years will go home earlier, which will strain a government already struggling financially with a higher pension payment.
The government raised the statutory retirement age from 55 to 60 in 2009 to address a mounting pension expense.
The National Treasury paid Sh69.22 billion in pension and gratuity in the six months to December 2021.
A 2016 audit found that 35% of national government employees were 51–60.
The Financial Year 2021/2022 Public Service Commission (PSC) annual report showed 3,958 officers leaving 47 ministries, departments, and organisations.
The Public Service Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2023, allows acting appointments for 30 days to six months.
The proposed law requires a person to meet all qualifications for a public position before being appointed in an acting capacity.
“An acting appointment shall be in favour of a public officer who is duly qualified and competent to perform the duty and not undermine the expeditious appointment or deployment of a competent person to the public office concerned,” the bill states.
The Public Service Commission will immediately withdraw an acting appointment without qualifications.
