Monday, August 4, 2014

Merge our two pension schemes, say employees


PHOTO | FILE Bungoma Governor Ken Lusaka (left), Laptrust managing director Hosea Kili (centre) and Murang’a Governor Mwangi wa Iria during a governors’ forum on investments and alternative funding organised by Laptrust in 2013. Laptrust has now been re-branded into a county fund to reflect its new mandate.
PHOTO | FILE Laptrust managing director Hosea Kili (centre) in this file photo. Mr Hosea Kili, denied that Laptrust had been turned into a private company.  NATION MEDIA GROUP
By NATION REPORTER
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County workers want two former local authority pension schemes merged.

 
The Kenya County Government Workers Union Vice-Chairman Alexander Kirui said majority of public servants in counties wanted the Local Authority Pension Trust (Laptrust) and the Local Authority Pension Fund (Lapfund) made one.
“We support a merger under an Act of Parliament to protect the interests of members,” he said.
Mr Kirui said a meeting of the union’s national executive council had endorsed the plans.
A decision by the Council of Governors to turn Laptrust — a former local authorities’ workers scheme — into a pension fund for county workers has been contested by various quarters.
STATE LAW OFFICE
The council formed a technical committee, which recommended that Laptrust be converted into a county workers’ pension scheme. But the council went ahead and changed it, and named it the County Pension Scheme.
This development sparked protests from stakeholders, including the Retirement Benefits Authority, the Transition Authority and the State Law Office.
A letter from TA chairman Kinuthia Wamwangi said the decision was a departure from recommendations of the technical committee.
Mr Wamwangi’s letter, addressed to Deputy President William Ruto, said the committee made elaborate proposals on the modalities of establishing a retirement scheme that would meet the requirements of all county government staff.
Laptrust has since been changed to County Pension Scheme Financial Services, a development that has been questioned by the Attorney-General.
However, the new outfit’s boss, Mr Hosea Kili, denied that Laptrust had been turned into a private company.

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