The Salaries and Remunerations Commission (SRC) is against a proposal to lower the statutory retirement age in Kenya.
(SRC) chairperson Lyn Mengich asserts that the mandatory retirement age in Kenya should remain at 60. Currently, public servants and teachers have a mandatory retirement age capped at 60 years and 65 for those abled differently.
However, Parliament has received a legislative proposal to lower the statutory retirement age to 55. Introduced by Embakasi Central MP Benjamin Gathiru, the Public Service Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2023 also aims to amend the current Act by prohibiting any officer from serving in an acting capacity for more than six months.
Proponents of the proposal insist that it seeks to provide more young people with opportunities to grow professionally in the service.
However, Mrs Mengich stated on Tuesday that lowering the retirement age would compel the nation to incur a higher pensionable liability, as more Kenyans would now be pensionable.
“You need to look at what’s the common trend worldwide because that gives us a benchmark and of course, there are countries where there is no retirement age,” she said on Spice FM.
Mengich further argued that disposing of employees at a fairly young age would be impractical, especially when they still possess rich experience that boosts the Kenyan workforce.
“The conversation should be what works for Kenya. If you say people retire at 55 it means they are pensionable at 55 yet they are people who are still productive, they can contribute effectively to the country.”
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