Teachers will now retire at 55 should a proposal to lower the statutory retirement age for civil servants, be accepted by the parliament.

Currently, the mandatory retirement age for public servants and teachers is capped at 60 years and 65 for those abled differently.

The government says lowering the mandatory retirement age from 60 to 55 would provide more young people with employment opportunities in the public sector.

The retirement age was first revised in 2009 where the government allowed workers to serve for up to 60 years from the previous 55 years as it sought to keep competent workers  in the workforce for a longer period of time.

At the time, the reason given for the review was that the government was struggling with a huge pension bill as more people retired from service.

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An audit conducted in 2016 revealed that 35% of national government employees were between the ages of 51 and 60.

According to the Public Service Commission’s (PSC) annual report for the Financial Year 2021/2022, a total of 3,958 officers left the service in 47 ministries, departments, and agencies.

The Salaries and Remunerations Commission (SRC) says that if the latest adjustments are accepted, the taxpayers would carry a higher pension liability, meaning that there would be more people on pension.

“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,” SRC chairperson Lyn Mengich said.

“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.” she added.

SRC further argued that it would be impractical to dispose of employees at a fairly young age while they still possess a rich experience that bolsters the Kenyan workforce.