Workers should now brace themselves for a tenfold increase in the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) contributions after the Central Organisation of Trade Unions (Cotu) backed President William Ruto’s renewed bid to implement the plan.
Cotu secretary-general Francis Atwoli said, in a statement, Tuesday the increment is long overdue because the current deductions are inadequate.
“Cotu would like to make it clear to all Kenyan workers and Kenyans, in general, that we fully support the increment in NSSF deductions from the current Sh200 to the six percent rate as captured in the NSSF Act,” he said.
The statement comes just days after the President brokered a truce between the workers’ union, NSSF and the Federation of Kenya Employers (FKE) to withdraw court cases blocking the implementation of the NSSF Act 2013.
Dr Ruto, who spoke on Sunday at a church service in Murang’a confirmed that talks between Cotu and FKE had been successful, saying that the new regulations will be published in two weeks as part of an ongoing effort to boost savings.
The NSSF Act 2013 sought to raise monthly contributions by employees from the current Sh200 monthly and demanded employers match the payout.
The contributions were last reviewed in 2001 when the rate was increased to Sh200 from Sh160.
Cotu had in 2014 sought court orders to suspend the NSSF Act 2013, arguing that workers were not represented in the NSSF board and that the fund did not have a substantive managing trustee to oversee its implementation Cotu later withdrew the case in October 2020 saying the two issues had been resolved.
In September, the High Court halted the bid to implement the Act, saying that the law supporting the tenfold increment to Sh2,068 was unconstitutional.
