President Ruto Tells Off Raila for Opposing Proposal to Increase Pension Contributions

President Ruto has told off opposition leader Raila Odinga for opposing his administration’s proposal to increase the statutory monthly deduction to the national pension scheme.

Ruto wants the monthly contribution to the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) raised from Sh200 to 6 percent of an individual's monthly salary in order to expand the pool of national savings, cut back on external borrowing, and manage the country’s debt burden.

Accusing Raila of being out of touch with reality, the president pointed out that the proposal has been backed by the Federation of Kenya Employers (FKE) and the Central Organization of Trade Unions (COTU).

“We want to raise our savings because at the moment we are at between 10 and 12% of GDP…we can scale that to between 30 and 40% of our GDP. That is the surest foundation of running our development programme, not going on a borrowing spree, in any case the money we are borrowing is the savings of others and we have to pay for it through the nose,” Ruto said during the launch of State of the Judiciary and Administration of Justice Annual Report at the Supreme Court.

He added: “Already we have had conversations with COTU, consulted the FKE and we have all agreed, except the people in opposition, that we must increase our savings from Ksh.200 per month to 6% of our salaries. I want to ask our brothers in the opposition to wake up and smell the coffee.”

COTU Secretary-General Francis Atwoli termed the proposal to increase NSSF deductions as long overdue, saying the current Sh200 monthly remittance by workers in Kenya is the lowest in East African region. He tabulated a worker’s retirement kitty at Sh144,000 after 30 years of contribution.

Similarly, the government is pushing for contributions to the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) at 1.7 percent for persons earning more than Sh100,000 per month.