Kenya Railways retirees support asset disposal

The Association of Kenya Railways Retirees (Akerare) with a membership of 9,500 representing 90% of the pensioners in the Kenya Railways Scheme has dismissed claims by a rival group that Sh3.5 billion of the scheme has been lost.

The association chairman Johnson Miano, says contrary to claims being perpetuated by Robert Azaria the secretary general of Kenya Railways Pensioner Association, the scheme under the management of corporate and Pension was headed towards the right direction.

Miano acknowledged that indeed initially the scheme had faced numerous challenges since 99% of its assets are property based and raising the liquidity required to pay monthly pension had been a challenge.

 

“Previous boards of trustees grappled with the challenges of managing our scheme and regrettably its fortunes continued to decline as the welfare of the pensioners deteriorated. The scheme   was involved in a number of disputes and Court cases with irregular pension payments.” Miano added.

He said the scheme’s challenges led to Retirement Benefits Authority (RBA) stepping for inspection and issued a report in November 2011 which detailed findings that raised serious concerns on the management of the Scheme. The   report   recommended a number of remedial measures which included the removal from office of the then Board of Trustees and the appointment of a professional Corporate Trustee to manage the scheme. 

It also recommended that all future sales of property would be done through an open tendering process.

“Since the appointment of Corporate & Pension in July 2012 the recovery agenda of the scheme is ongoing and currently a monthly pension of Kshs   70 million is paid on time to retires on time”. He explained.

He said plans to settle outstanding arrears are underway once the ongoing sale of assets which is now at its final stages is concluded. He however, warned the rival group against making unsubstantiated accusations against directors of Corporate & Pension in the media and instead report to the authority any suspected malpractices.

Corporate & Pension has been given the mandate to manage the scheme worth Sh30 billion on behalf of around 10,000 KR employees as part of restructuring process at the parastatal