Joseph Kinyua, governors clash on county staff pension
Council of Governors (CoG) Chair and Governor of Embu County Martin Wambora during a past media briefing.
Head of Public Service Joseph Kinyua is entangled in a vicious fight with governors over the control of county workers’ pension funds.
Mr Kinyua argues that the Local Authorities Pension Trust (Laptrust) is a public entity and should therefore be under the State Corporations Act.
A correspondence dated July 16,2021 from Mr Kinyua to top government officials clarified how the pension should be managed.
“Secretary of State Corporations Advisory Committee (SCAC) to ensure compliance of Laptrust and its affiliate entities with the State Corporations Act, including ownership structures, board composition, terms and conditions of service, human resource management framework and other general governance guidelines as have been issued from time to time as well as general compliance with the Mwongozo," the letter seen by the Nation read in part.
But the governors view this as a scheme by the national government to control the Sh60 billion fund.
Council of Governors (CoG) chairman Martin Wambora, in a letter to Mr Kinyua, warned the national government against interfering in the management of county government staff pension.
"The Laptrust DB Scheme, the County Pension Fund (CPF) and other related entities are exempt entities under Section 2 of the State Corporations Act since they are unincorporated and fall under the Local Government Act (now County Government Act) and the government does not hold any shareholding in the two schemes," the Embu governor said in a letter dated August 5, 2021.
"We, therefore, wish to firmly caution against any form of interference in the running and management of pension schemes for county governments or any other scheme for that matter," the letter further read.
CoG Finance Chairman Ndiritu Muriithi yesterday said the national government was keen on managing and controlling the wealth created by the pension fund and warned its officials to keep off the schemes.
Mr Muriithi said: "CPF is one of the funds that are well managed. It has been growing steadily over the years and has assets of about Sh60 billion. We suspect that it is these assets and cash flows that the national government is targeting."
The Laikipia Governor called on the National Treasury, Office of the President and State department of Devolution to cease interfering with county institutions.
