A confession by a 65-year-old retiree detailing how he lost more than Sh1.8 million of his golden handshake to dubious investment schemes left participants in the public participation session on the proposed changes to the Retirement Benefits Authority (RBA) Act regulations baffled.
Moses Munyori, a former employee of the Kenya Post and Telecommunications Company, shared how a series of investment blunders coupled with the excitement to pump money into savings schemes without due diligence nearly left his account high and dry.
“After working for 27 years, I was retrenched in 2008 and given a golden handshake. But after investing some of the money in various company shares, I do not know how I can get my money,” Munyori narrated.
“The largest amount of money I lost was in the Fountain Enterprise Programme (FEP), and to date, I cannot recover the Sh 380,000 I pumped in. They closed down their offices in Nyeri, and even when you go to Nairobi, there is no way of following up,” says the 65-year-old.
According to Munyori, it was not just FEP that took off with his money. He says that he has lost money after investing in Kenya Airways shares, the Cooperative Society, and even his former employer, Kenya Post and Telecommunications, swindled him of Sh 1.5 million.
“If you calculate the principal amount and the interest that would have accumulated over the 15 years, that whole amount is more than Sh 5 million. That is a lot of money, and if I had access to it, I would not be struggling to educate my grandchildren,” stated Munyori.
In hindsight, much as he attributes his financial woes to his failure to exercise due diligence on the credibility of the schemes, Munyori equally blames part of his financial woes to the lack of government regulations for the investment schemes.
He says that at the time, the schemes operated freely without any form of legal monitoring, leaving unsuspecting investors like him at the mercy of the dubious dealers.
“During our times, we had no authority to regulate these schemes or to safeguard members and their investments. There was no respite even in the courts because you had nothing to prove your case so your investments and you ended up dying a poor and desperate investor, “he said.
He, however, attributed the current sanity of investment schemes to the tight regulations instituted by the government and at the same time encouraged anyone looking to channel their money into such schemes to remain alert to avoid facing a predicament similar to his.
“The government has taken the initiative to put in place authorities to regulate the sector. But I still warn the young people to ensure that they only invest their money in registered schemes,” said Munyori.
According to data from the RBA, the agency is currently overseeing a total of 1,076 registered schemes with 7.1 million memberships. The authority is also supervising 26 fund managers, whose role is to advise trustees on available investments and the expected risks and returns.
By Wangari Mwangi and Samuel Maina
