National Social Security Fund (NSSF) trustee Rose Omamo has pledged to investigate bribery allegations involving retirement benefits, insisting that the fund will not tolerate corruption or misconduct by employees handling workers’ savings.
Speaking on Radio Generation on Monday, Omamo, an executive board member of the Central Organisation of Trade Unions (COTU-K), said the board was responsible for protecting workers’ interests and ensuring that integrity concerns receive appropriate attention.
She said the board would investigate complaints before determining the appropriate action against those implicated.
“At the board level, we do oversight, and as we do our oversight, if there are integrity issues that have been brought to our attention, then we would make sure that we really do due diligence,” Omamo said.
She added that investigations would establish the circumstances surrounding reported cases and identify the underlying problems.
“We would do due diligence to make sure that we get to the real root cause and work on it thoroughly, because we can’t allow such cases to be,” she added.
Omamo maintained that she had not received direct complaints from pensioners about being asked to pay bribes to access their benefits but acknowledged that this did not rule out the possibility of misconduct.
She urged affected retirees to report any demands for unofficial payments, maintaining that NSSF had systems intended to facilitate claims without requiring members to pay bribes.
Her remarks follow renewed scrutiny of the fund after National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichung’wah called on its management to address bribery allegations and improve access to services.
Speaking in Parliament on October 15, Ichung’wah urged NSSF management to take responsibility for alleged misconduct and questioned why retirees in remote counties should have to travel to Nairobi to access their savings.
The concerns come against a broader background of investigations into the management of NSSF resources.
In January 2026, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) handed the fund a systems review report identifying weaknesses and recommending reforms to strengthen transparency and reduce opportunities for corruption.
The commission said the recommendations were intended to address vulnerabilities that could facilitate corrupt practices and improve the fund’s internal controls.
Financial management has also attracted scrutiny.
An Auditor-General’s report on the financial year ending June 2024, reported in June 2025, highlighted concerns including more than Sh904 million in tax payments awaiting refunds and a Sh115 million land purchase in Upper Hill whose title had been revoked because the parcel was reserved for public use.
The findings raised questions about financial oversight and the protection of members’ savings.
Separately, the EACC reported in 2022 that a long-running case involving irregular share transactions had resulted in convictions over the fraudulent acquisition of shares valued at more than Sh1.2 billion.
The investigation concerned transactions dating back to 2008 and demonstrated the consequences of failures in the management of pension funds.
Omamo highlighted that the board would not make conclusions about allegations without conducting due diligence. She maintained that complaints brought to its attention would be examined and appropriate action taken.
Her fellow trustee, Administrative Secretary, COTU(K), Isaac Mbingi Okello, said the board had previously acted against employees over integrity concerns.
“Those that have come to our attention, we have dealt with them. We have people right now at home because we could not tolerate them in this organisation,” he said.
He urged pensioners to report bribery demands, saying the board would not condone such conduct.
The trustees’ assurances come as the fund faces pressure to demonstrate that workers’ retirement savings are protected through transparent administration, effective oversight and accessible benefit-processing services.