The Senate Committee on Labour and Social Welfare pressed the Cabinet Secretaries for the National Treasury and Education to make firm, time-bound commitments to settle billions of shillings in pension arrears owed to current and former staff of the Technical University of Kenya (TUK), warning that many retirees had waited too long for justice.

The sitting, chaired by Sen. Julius Murgor (West Pokot), heard that the collapse of the TUK Staff Retirement Benefits Scheme resulted from years of structural underfunding, unremitted pension deductions and financial mismanagement, leaving the scheme with assets sufficient to pay only 13 per cent of members' accrued benefits.

Leading the committee's interrogation, Sen. Crystal Asige, the Vice Chairperson, challenged Treasury CS John Mbadi to prioritise the plight of pensioners instead of focusing on future reforms.

"However, CS Treasury, with all due respect, I believe that this issue needs to be resolved first before looking into the future," she said, before asking: "What about this scheme? What is the plan here?"

Sen. Miraj Abdullahi said earlier testimony by the university's Vice Chancellor showed that inadequate Exchequer releases had prevented TUK from remitting pension deductions, leaving employees to bear the consequences. She argued that the failure to remit the deductions violated workers' constitutional rights to fair labour practices and social protection under Articles 41 and 43 of the Constitution, and demanded to know when the Ministry of Education would honour the Return-to-Work Formula agreed with staff.

Responding, Education CS Julius Migos said the Ministry had developed a Return-to-Work Formula requiring KSh2.073 billion through a supplementary budget, followed by annual allocations of about KSh1 billion to progressively clear the pension deficit.

He said the proposal had previously been submitted to the National Treasury but was not funded because of fiscal constraints. With verification of the outstanding liabilities by the liquidator now complete, he pledged to resubmit the proposal, while cautioning that inclusion in a supplementary budget would depend on whether "the fiscal space allows."

Treasury CS John Mbadi expressed support for resolving the crisis and confirmed that his ministry would back the registration of a new retirement benefits scheme for current TUK employees.

On the question of settling the arrears, however, Mbadi declined to commit to a payment timeline, saying any intervention had to fit within the national budget framework and receive parliamentary approval. Rejecting suggestions by Sen. Joe Nyutu (Murang'a) that Treasury had failed to release previously approved allocations to TUK, he said:

"Up to now, there is no resources that Parliament has allocated, and National Treasury has refused to release. I want to be very clear on that."

He added that if the Ministry of Education prioritised the TUK pension arrears in the next budget cycle, Treasury would support the request within the available resource envelope.

The response failed to satisfy several senators.

Sen. Asige argued that Treasury could not shift responsibility to Parliament because government spending priorities originate with the Budget Policy Statement prepared by the National Treasury.

"Nothing has been approved because nothing was submitted for approval to Parliament," she said.

Joining the debate, Sen. Beth Syengo urged the two ministries to provide "a concrete answer" that clearly outlined the next steps and timelines for compensating affected workers.

Earlier, the committee heard that TUK's pension crisis dates back to the institution's transition from Kenya Polytechnic to a university college in 2007. Officials from the Ministry of Education said years of inadequate government funding and failure to remit pension deductions had contributed to a cumulative structural deficit estimated at nearly KSh13 billion.

The court-appointed liquidator told senators that reconstructed records showed outstanding pension liabilities of about KSh6.8 billion, against assets of only KSh907 million, leaving the scheme just 13 per cent funded.

Fred Sawenja, a representative of the affected workers, appealed to senators to ensure the government translated policy commitments into actual funding, saying many retirees had died while waiting for benefits they had earned.

"As we speak, the members who retired, we keep losing them. They die. Their dependents also die. They are suffering because of this... those who are in service today, also working without a scheme, basically have nothing to look forward to in the future."

The committee resolved that the Ministry of Education should resubmit its funding proposal using the liquidator's verified figures, while the National Treasury undertook to support the request.

Despite the undertaking, senators maintained that affected workers deserved more than assurances, insisting the government must now translate its commitments into actual payments for pensioners who have waited years for their retirement benefits