Government Intends to Retire Teachers and Civil Servants at Age of 55
Government Intends to Retire Teachers and Civil Servants at Age of 55. Teachers and government employees will be able to retire at the age of 55 if a plan to decrease the retirement age is approved by parliament.
According to Section 80(1)(a) and (b) of the Public Service Commission Act 2017, a public servant must retire from their post on the date they reach the mandatory retirement age.
The required retirement age is currently 60, and for persons with disabilities, it is 65.
To give young people more opportunities in the public sector, the parliamentary committee proposes decreasing the mandatory retirement age from 60 to 55.
On Thursday, August 3, the National Assembly’s Labour Committee said that it would propose an amendment to the Public Service Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2023 that would raise the retirement age to 55.
The bill is sponsored by Embakasi Central MP Benjamin Gathiru. It also seeks to amend the current Act by requiring no officer to serve in an acting capacity for more than six months.
Fabian Muli, a Kangundo member of parliament, indicated that if the committee wishes to represent the interests of the youth, it should propose more revisions to the Bill that decrease the retirement age.
To instill pride in the nation’s young people, Mr. Muli stated, “We need to think further and lower the age to 55.”
He added that if the committee did not consider the age reduction modification, he would personally submit the change.
According to Kilifi South MP Ken Chonga, the committee must amend the basic legal conditions relating the retirement age.
According to Mr. Chonga, in order to amend those rules, we must first understand how the 60-year retirement age was decided.
While supporting the lower retirement age, Mangale Munga, MP for Lunga Lunga, remarked that there is a need to accommodate the growth of young people.
Why six decades? It should be raised to 55 years old in order to provide way for young people. That is a proposal; whether it is accepted or rejected is a matter of personal preference, according to Mr. Munga.
Mr. Gathiru stated, “I have allowed the committee to make changes to the Bill, but we must not lose sight of its purpose or objective.”
If the changes are passed, the majority of federal officials who are set to retire in the next five years will be able to do so sooner. This will have severe consequences, including increasing financial pressure on a government that is already struggling to meet its responsibilities due to increased pension payments.
As a result of the government’s challenges to pay for rising pension expenditures, the required retirement age was raised from 55 to 60 years old in 2009.
The National Treasury distributed Sh69.22 billion in pension and gratuity payments in the six months leading up to December 2021.
A 2016 audit found that 35% of national government employees were between the ages of 51 and 60.
According to the Public Service Commission (PSC) annual report for 47 ministries, agencies, and organizations, 3,958 officers left the service during Fiscal Year 2021-2022.
A person may be appointed in an acting capacity for up to six months, but no more than 30 days, under the Public Service Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2023.
According to the proposed legislation, an individual can only be nominated to serve in an acting capacity in a public office if they have met all of the prerequisites for that specific officer.
The Bill specifies that “an acting appointment shall be in favor of a public officer who is duly qualified and competent to perform the duty and shall not jeopardize the expeditious appointment or deployment of a competent person to the public office concerned.”
If someone is appointed to an acting role without the appropriate credentials, the Public Service Commission will cancel the appointment immediately.