They served Kenyan communities faithfully from the dawn of independence in 1963 right up to the 2010 Constitution’s devolution era, handling grassroots responsibilities with the same weight as today’s MPs and MCAs—yet many now face a heartbreaking reality: abject poverty, untreated illnesses, and premature deaths, all while waiting for promised pensions that never arrived.
In a desperate and emotional plea, surviving former councillors are turning directly to President William Ruto, begging for his personal intervention to deliver the respectable pension they say is long overdue. They argue that while elected officials at higher levels enjoy prompt retirement benefits, these veteran civic leaders—who earned modest allowances of just Sh7,000 to Sh13,000 monthly—have been systematically neglected by successive governments.
“We were not paid salaries but allowances with equal responsibility as current MCAs. This little money left us with nothing to invest, and that’s why we’re suffering today,” said Pius Mzee Arap Kauka, former deputy mayor of Kitale and chairman of the former councillors’ organisation in Trans Nzoia County.
Kauka painted a grim picture: Of the 83 councillors who once served in Trans Nzoia, only about 50 remain alive. “Most have died due to frustrations while chasing their pension dues,” he revealed. Survivors grapple daily with chronic conditions—Kauka himself spends over Sh200 each day on diabetes medication—while lacking any reliable income. Many depend on friends and family for even basic needs.
The group is demanding an additional monthly pension of Sh80,000 per person, alongside long-promised one-off retirement packages, including the Sh1.5 million gratuity and Sh30,000 monthly stipend that Kauka says he was assured but never received. “If the government had listened and paid us our pension and stipends, life could have been different,” he lamented.
Coordinator Christopher Makokha Wanjala echoed the sentiment: “We diligently served the people of Kenya as councillors before the 2010 Constitution and in various capacities, but successive governments neglected us. Our hope is on President Ruto to implement our package.”
The frustration is palpable when they compare their fate to that of MPs and other officials who receive timely pensions. Why the double standard? they ask—especially when former councillors handled similar local governance duties without the perks.
Past government promises have repeatedly fallen flat. In 2023, then-Treasury CS Njuguna Ndung’u announced Sh2.3 billion in gratuity for over 11,000 short-term councillors and Sh218 million for those with longer service, vowing payments by mid-2024. Those funds largely never materialized. More recently, current Treasury CS John Mbadi cited legal barriers to implementing even a modest Sh200,000 honorarium or the 2018 Senate resolution, suggesting instead that short-term servers join the Inua Jamii program for a mere Sh2,000 monthly handout—an offer the group dismisses as insulting and wholly inadequate.
Meanwhile, recent developments offer a glimmer of hope—and irony. In late January 2026, President Ruto announced plans to fast-track a contributory pension scheme for governors, county speakers, and MCAs to shield them from post-office hardship. Former pre-devolution councillors now petition to be included in any such framework, arguing their contributions deserve equal recognition.
As age, illness, and poverty claim more lives each year, these forgotten public servants are making one final stand. Will President Ruto step in to restore dignity to those who once built the nation’s foundations at the grassroots level? Time is running out—the clock is ticking for justice.
