In his prime, Kassim* was a budding technician working for one of the biggest state corporations. Due to an illness that left him with walking difficulties, he was forced into early retirement over 20 years ago. He retired and went  to a sleepy village in Vanga, Kwale County near the border of Kenya and Tanzania.

For 20 years he tried to pursue his pensions. And when he once thought he was close to getting his dues, he was asked to pay Kshs 5,000 to assist in the ‘retrieval’ of his file. Unable to raise the money, he resigned himself to fate until the Advocacy and Legal Advocacy Centre team from Mombasa, held a mobile legal aid clinic in his village in Vanga in October 2014. The legal aid clinic was part of the project aimed at localizing anti-corruption efforts in Kwale County.

ALAC officers reviewed his case and forwarded it to the Pensions Department and the Commission on Administrative Justice. Within a week of the referral, his file was availed and he was requested to visit the Pensions Department office for clearance of his file paving way for payment of his pension dues. In January 2015 he received his first cheque.