Parliamentarians have raised alarm over delayed pension payments and costly idle loan commitments, calling out the government for neglecting senior citizens while bleeding public coffers through inefficiencies in project financing.
Speaking during a session of the National Assembly’s Committee on Public Debt and Privatization, Chairperson Hon. Abdi Shurie (Balambala) criticized the government’s failure to meet pension obligations, branding the situation a betrayal of elderly retirees who “should be enjoying what they worked hard to save.”
“It is sad to imagine a 70-year-old retiree suffering because their pension hasn’t been paid, while independent office holders enjoy full salaries,” Hon. Shurie said.
The grilling followed the appearance of Controller of Budget, Dr. Margaret Nyakang’o, who presented a report on the Consolidated Fund Services (CFS) as at March 31, 2025.
According to the report, only 52% of the pension budget—Kshs 115.4 billion out of Kshs 223.15 billion—was disbursed in the first nine months of the current financial year.
Dr. Nyakang’o attributed the shortfall to delays in funding and systemic downtimes, revealing that Kshs 30.14 billion worth of processed pension payments remain unfunded.
“We processed Kshs 131.92 billion in pensions, but only Kshs 101.78 billion was released by the exchequer,” she explained.
In response to the crisis, the Controller noted that the 2025/26 pension budget has been increased by 5.3% to Kshs 234.9 billion.
However, MPs were not convinced this alone would resolve the persistent delays.
