The National Treasury has finally released Sh16.08 billion to 22, 022 retired teachers in delayed pension after 20 years.

This has left retired teachers who have for two decades been battling the government for their pension with every reason to smile.

National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Njuguna Ndung’u on Thursday confirmed that the amount disbursed covers the period between 1998 and 2003.

This was released when he was appearing before the Finance Committee of the National Assembly over the 2023/24 financial year budget.

The pension payments for retired teachers were first awarded by the High Court in Nakuru on October 28, 2008.
However, the government moved to the Court of Appeal but lost the appeal on November 2010.

Later, Supreme Court also rejected another appeal by the government in 2013.

In 2014, the Attorney-General filed another application at the Supreme Court seeking a review of the Court of Appeal decision where in a December 9, 2015 ruling, the Supreme Court declined the application.

This left the government with no option but to pay up the accrued pension arrears for the retired teachers.
On Thursday the CS told MPs that the remaining 1,465 claims are in the pipeline for payment as they are being processed by the Treasury.

The affected retirees were teachers who did not benefit from the government’s salary increase after a 1997 deal with trade unions.

They retired after benefiting from one of the five phases due to a cash crunch that hit the then-Daniel Arap Moi government.

Ndung’u said the ministry had received revised claims affecting 23,487 retired teachers from the Teachers Service Commission (TSC).

The CS said that the remaining number of 1,465 claims, are in the pipeline for payment as they are being processed by the Treasury.

By Jane Kibathi.