Former Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) Secretary General Wilson Sossion has proposed the lowering of retirement age to 55 to help absorb jobless teachers.
In an interview with KTN News, Sossion explained that newly trained Gen Z teachers cannot be employed because older teachers have not yet left the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), creating a bottleneck.
“25% of public service is made up of people aged over 50 and we’ve perfected a culture in this country of staying in office and perpetuating people who ought to retire to even serve beyond their time limits with the excuse of skills and experience,” Sossion said.
“If the public service is retaining people who ought to have retired then there was no sense to extend the retirement age from 55 to 60 years. At 55 we are good enough to go home.”
He further argued that in a country like Kenya where the youth unemployment rate is high, the public service should not have retirement extending beyond 55 to allow good transition.
Sossion Wants Retirement Age Lowered
Sossion also stated that, in his view, sticking to office is a Kenyan habit he categorizes as corruption, and believes is not the right thing to do.
He said most of the teachers employed by TSC are now aged between 45-60.
“If you want to make the best teacher engage that teacher in active employment soon after training in the public service,” he stated.
Also Read: Govt to Employ 26,000 New Teachers, Ruto Clarifies Fate of 46k Interns
Additionally, he stated that extending beyond retirement age is the problem affecting Kenya’s employment sector as people end up personalizing institutions office.
“The retirement age was extended from 55 to 60 which affects the next generations, and somebody can still propose tomorrow to extend it from 60 to 65,” he said.
Sossion emphasized that Kenya should not be compared to countries in the North whose retirement is extended because the population growth is slow and there is no shortage of Labor and Personnel.
“There must be clear transition in all public institutions if it is your time to leave you should leave and we should have a very open and transparent recruitment of successors who assume office almost immediately even when that recruitment has not been done,” he added.
Also Read: No Permanent Jobs for Teachers, HELB Allocation Slashed in Latest Govt Proposals
James Nyikal Calls out PSC
Seme MP James Nyikal said public service should be accountable for retaining people who ought to have retired and hiring post-retirement on contractual basis.
He blamed the Public Service for implementing laws but doing the opposite because people are not expected to manage their exit on their own as there is an authority that manages them.
“The issue when you have systems that you have put in place, saying this should happen at this time. You should ask why it is not happening and who is the officer in charge,” he said.
“This is a case in point where a person indicated the desire to go home and it’s unlikely in my view that is the person who is actually delaying this thing now probably is other people who are delaying it maybe with the intention of getting the person they deserve.”
About The Retirement Age
Parliament received a legislative proposal to lower the statutory retirement age to 55.
Proponents of the proposal insisted that the aim is to give more young people opportunities to grow in the service professionally.
In 2009, the government revised the retirement age from 55 to 60 years and provided five more years for all Kenyans living with disabilities across the public service.
Currently, the mandatory retirement age for public servants and teachers is capped at 60 years and 65 for those abled differently.
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