Government Agrees to Pay Former Councilors Sh2.6 Billion in Gratuity

The National Treasury has has agreed to pay former councilors a one-off gratuity amounting to Sh2.6 billion.

Appearing before the Senate Labour committee on Thursday, Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yattani said the former councilors will receive the payments in the next financial year due to harsh economic times.

328 former councilors who served for more than four terms will pocket Sh664,000 each in a one off payment while 11,919 others who served less than four terms will be paid Sh200,000 each.

Members of the senate committee welcomed the move but questioned why the former councilors will have to wait for another one year to get their benefits.

“The threshold is too high, because to server for four consecutive terms is meant to lock out as many councilors as possible, and to imagine that they will have to wait for another one year to get Sh200, 000 is in my view too little too late, and doesn’t speak to any respect at all,” said Kitui Senator Enock Wambua.

Senators wanted Yatani to bring a supplementary budget and cater for the councilors, who they said many are dying of old age and sickness but the Cabinet Secretary maintained it is impossible to make the payments this financial year.

“It’s quite easy to say that I bring a supplementary budget, but that won’t be realistic, we can’t give what we can’t afford, the decision by the court stopping charging of minimum tax has already caused a Ksh.22 billion dent in our budget, in fact we will have to revise most of our budgets,” he said.

The former councilors have been pushing to be paid gratuity and monthly payments that would have cost the taxpayer up to Sh22 billion, a proposal that was rejected by the Treasury.