The National Social and Security Fund (NSSF) has told employers to comply with the ruling of the Court of Appeal that sustained the NSSF Act No.45 effectively increasing the current contributions per person.
Through a statement issued on Friday, NSSF Chairman Antony Munyiri said the Employers who have been complying with the NSSF Act No. 45 of 2013 Act should continue doing so, while those who are not should comply as advised.
“The total contributions for both employee and employer will now be Sh2,160,” the statement read.
Munyiri said that following the ruling employers are required to remit the said member’s monthly contribution to the Fund by the 9th of every month.
The deductions will be applied in different categories; according to the NSSF Act, the Upper Earning Limit (UEL) is for employees who earn Sh18,000 and above, while the Lower Earning Limit (LEL) is for those who earn below Sh6,000.
“The pension contribution will be 12 per cent of the pensionable wages made up of two equal portions of 6 per cent from the employee and 6 per cent from the employer subject to an upper limit of Sh2,160 for employees earning above Sh18,000,” reads a public notice on the Act.
Employees earning between Sh3,000 and Sh6,000 will pay contributions in the Tier 1 category only. Further, employees whose earnings are between Sh6,000 and Sh18,000 will pay contributions in the Tier 2 category only.
For employees earning between Sh3,000 and Sh4,500, the amount of their monthly deduction will be Sh360.
As for employees earning between Sh4,501-6,000, their total contributions will be Sh540, and employees earning between Sh6,001-10,000 will pay Sh720.
Those getting above Sh10,000 and below Sh14,000 will remit Sh1,200 monthly, while those earning between Sh14,000 and Sh17,999 will contribute Sh1,680.
Those earning Sh18,000 and above will pay a monthly contribution of Sh2,160.
The government’s plan to implement the NSSF Act 2013 for higher monthly contributions had been cut short by labour court judges Nduma Nderi, Hellen Wasilwa and Monica Mbaru in September last year when they declared the Act illegal and unconstitutional.
The case challenging the law was filed by Kenya Tea Growers Association and 14 other employer and employee associations.
The Employment and Labour court agreed with their submissions and declared that the NSSF Act 2013 was unconstitutional since it was enacted by the National Assembly without public participation and involvement of the Senate.
But the NSSF Board of Trustees through Senior Counsel Fred Ngatia appealed the decision, arguing that the court lacked jurisdiction to determine the dispute and wrongly found that National Assembly failed to involve the Senate when the law did not concern county governments.
The Appeal Court judges agreed that enactment of the NSSF Act, 2013 did not require participation of the Senate and that the employment and labour court judges made a grave error by failing to establish that the Act did not interfere with functions of county governments.
“The decision declaring the NSSF Act, 2013 unconstitutional for failure to involve the Senate in its enactment was not supported by the law. On this ground, we hold that the judgment cannot be allowed to stand,” ruled the judges.
