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The Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) has demanded immediate appointment of Public Service Superannuation Scheme (PSSS) trustees, saying the delay is a serious breach of procedure.

Kuppet Secretary General Akelo Misori yesterday urged Treasury Cabinet Secretary Prof Njuguna Ndung’u to immediately appoint the trustee to end what the union termed as, influence peddling and save pensioners’ fund. They said there is growing concern over failure to gazette trustees yet there are two major critical pending issues that should be addressed namely group life cover for teachers and holding Annual General meeting (AGM), which should happen this month to iron out audit queries raised last year.

“Kuppet is concerned by the government’s continued delay in appointing the Trustees to PSSS. For more than three months, the Fund has been operating without the management Board yet all nominating bodies including trade unions and government agencies have presented their appointees to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance as required by law,” said Misori, in a press conference, held in Kuppet’s office in Nairobi.

Misori stated that Kuppet is well aware that the delay in concluding these appointments has allegedly been occasioned by spanners thrown into the process by a cartel of powerbrokers angling to control the multi-billion shilling PSSS fund.

He said the delay in concluding the appointments has created a vacuum in PSSS management that may jeopardize the Scheme’s proper management as set in law. For four months now, Misori stated that the Fund’s leaders and staff have been left to make important decisions that fall under Board leadership, adding that the continued vacuum at board level leaves billions of shillings of pensioners’ hard-earned savings at risk.

“After Kuppet nominated our National Treasurer, Wicks Mwethi Njenga, for re-appointment as a Trustee, former Knut Secretary General, Wilson Sossion, who holds no public office, tried in vain to have the union change its nominee. He had intercepted our communication with the Principal Secretary for Finance, Dr Chris Kiptoo, which he used to pile pressure on the union to amend its nomination of Njenga,” said Misori.