Parliament has raised an alarm over more than Sh21 billion that State entities owe pensioners in unremitted deductions.
The pensioners are owed a total of Sh21,8 billion by 160 parastatals that have failed to remit workers’ deductions to the Pensions Department at the Treasury.
The rise in unremitted pensions has left many retirees facing financial woes in their sunset years, leaving them dependent on relatives for key expenses such as medical bills.
Data from the Parliamentary Budget Office (BPO), a think tank that advises MPs and its committees on fiscal matters, said the State corporations and semi-autonomous agencies of government have accumulated billions by the end of December 2022.
The University of Nairobi, Multimedia university, Moi university, Egerton University, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (Jkuat) and Kisii university top the list of institutions with pension arrears.
A brief by the BPO shows that the University of Nairobi has pension arrears of Sh5,713,652,963, Moi (Sh3.19 billion), Egerton (Sh2.13 billion), Jkuat (Sh2 billion) and Kisii (Sh585,757,934).
The tabulation by the Budget office shows that the 160 parastatals owe a total of Sh400.68 billion to the taxman, pension and hospital fund, saccos, banks, contractors, suppliers and suppliers.
The State entities owe Sh166.98 to contractors, Sh115.7 billion to suppliers, Sh9.25 billion for unremitted pay-as-you-ear (Paye), Sh95.5 million to the National Social Security Fund (NSSF), Sh72.42 million to the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF), Sh991.29 million in unremitted staff Sacco deductions, Sh2.96 billion in unremitted staff loans and Sh82.8 million classified as others.
