On Monday afternoon, Kanze Dena, the Director of Communications in former President Uhuru Kenyatta's office gave an official statement on his position on speculation that the Kenya Kwanza administration had refused to release monies intended to finance operations at his office.
She highlighted that as opposed to an earlier statement issued by State House Spokesperson Hussein Mohammed, Uhuru's current office has not been furnished by the state neither were new cars purchased to serve the former President.
Overall, she highlighted six issues and delivered Uhuru's official stance on the differences. Read the full statement below;
On the issue of the office. Before retirement and during his retirement, the former president has been sought to undertake various international roles, especially within the region in his capacity as a former Head of State, and among them was his appointment as a peace facilitator by EAC heads of State during the 22nd ordinary meeting of EAC Summit on July 22, 2022, in Arusha.
With no response from the State House and a lack of commitment to finalise the issue of the office space, the former President identified a suitable office space and went ahead to fully furnish and equip it from his pocket.
A formal letter was written to the State House requesting a valuation of the office that was identified by the former President Kenyatta as suitable for him to carry out his duties. However, the office did not receive a response on the issue, and instead, a response that the office received was via a text message, and in his statement, he indicated the estimates of the property in question.
To date, this office runs on the President's goodwill as it awaits a response from State House.
On the issue of vehicles. The former President is using vehicles given to him on a transitional basis. The office would like this to go on record that after the transition, a conversation on the purchase of vehicles as required by the Act commenced between the two offices. The conversation notes that the identification of vehicles was done down to the colour and then the conversation froze. To date, no discussions have been revived. We don't know if the cars were purchased or not.
On International trips. Since retirement, former president Uhuru Kenyatta has undertaken several official trips related to the roles and duties he has engaged in and only two such trips have been honored, the trip to Ethiopia on matters concerning the peace process led by the African Union and the one to Burundi that was 11th Summit of the heads of state and government of the East African Community on the issues pertaining to the peace process in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The office did submit other requests for the facilitation of trips but received no response.
Now the budget is the fourth issue. Now this is actually the core issue that the office seeks to have addressed.
Budget allocation. In the Financial Year 2022/2023, Parliament allocated this office Ksh655 million. To date, the office can only confirm the absorption of roughly Ksh28 million spread across the payment of allowances for domestic travel as well as facilitation of the 2 trips that I mentioned earlier that were honored, that is approximately 4.4% of the total budget for that particular year and this does not include the payment of salaries and medical insurance.
The financial year 2023/2024 which ends in a few weeks, the budget allocation for this office was Ksh503 million. The year is ending without the office having any access to this.
The total amount for the 2 years that we have not had access to is approximately Ksh1 billion. We can confirm that salaries have been paid as well as medical insurance, but we cannot allude to how much it is.
Now in the coming year, which is 2024/2025, the budget allocation is Ksh579 million. Well, the office waits with bated breath to see if this will be honored. You see, the Quagmire that this office is in is that the office cannot substantiate what has been used and where the monies have been used since several requests and attempts to get budget returns from their accounting officer, who is the State House comptroller, have fallen on deaf ears.
We would also like to distance ourselves from budget estimates tabled in Parliament. Our position is that we had no input on the budget estimates that informed the allocation of Ksh450 million treasury projects to allocate the office of the fourth retired president in the coming year of 2025/2026 and Ksh475 million for the year 2026/2027 as was reported by the Star Newspaper of the Tuesday, May 14, 2024.
You see, after budget estimates are approved by Parliament, the monies are disbursed to the accounting officers through Treasury. It is at this point that a department or office is able to access the budget allocation through the accounting officer as per their requirements. And I just want to state that our accounting officer in this case is our State House comptroller.
The total cost of the plan is then submitted to Parliament as budget estimates where once approved, the budget allocation will be under the care of the accounting officer who then is expected to allocate the monies to the Department of office. This process has not happened in our case. The lack of access to our rightful budget allocation has forced former president Uhuru Kenyatta to run the office from his pocket, paying for all the bills the office in cars.
Communication. The office notes with concern the choice of communication by State House to this office. State House chooses a verbal form of communication on official issues or chooses not to respond to correspondence by this office.
This includes the requisition for fuel maintenance, office operations and facilitation, pending renewal of contracts and budget returns. We all know the importance of written communication in any office to maintain transparency and order.
In the process that we have available to you, you will see internal communication within the office to enable us to account for actions taken following verbal non-committal communication from the State House. We have also seen the continuous onslaught of the office on local dailies as well as the leaking of misleading documents by State House presenting the office of the fourth retired president in a bad light to the public.
It has never been the intention of this office to engage with the State House via the public gallery on matters that should be handled between the 2 offices. The position of the office of the fourth retired president is a respect of institutions and as such has remained silent for the last 2 years hoping for a formal engagement with the State House.
However, the continued address of the issue in the public domain has informed the move by this office to give a formal response on the real state of Affairs. We call upon the relevant institutions led by Parliament who are mandated to uphold the rule of law and defend the Constitution, the auditor general who is tasked to hold the government accountable in its expenditure as well as the controller of budget to look into the issues that we have raised.
As an office, we are willing and ready to engage. However, it is our observation that there's a lack of commitment and reluctance by the government in fulfilling the Presidential Benefits Act in totality
Now, there was an issue that was raised in a statement about Mama Ngina Kenyatta. So as pertains the Act, we all know that Her Excellency Mama Ngina Kenyatta, in her capacity as a former first lady and surviving spouse of the late President Jomo Kenyatta, is entitled to benefits amounting to 50% of her husband's pension.
The 3 Range Rovers that Her Excellency Mama Ngina Kenyatta has in her possession were allocated to her by the late President Daniel Arap Moi and the late President Mwai Kibaki during their respective tenures and replaced accordingly after every 3 years that is.
Now clearly, the government spokesperson said that they gave her the cars, but clearly the government of the day has not provided her with any vehicles.
In fact, we would like to clarify that on the 18th of July 2023 at 7PM, all her drivers and security detail allocated to her were withdrawn from their residences via phone. The claims in the media that personnel were reinstated are false. To cap it on, fuel cards for her vehicles were also blocked since March 2023 to date and vehicle maintenance denied.
She fuels and maintains these government vehicles one of which has been unserviceable for approximately over 1 year. We do note that there are other beneficiaries of the Presidential Retired Benefits Act which include the former Prime Minister, Rtd Hon. Raila Odinga, the first Retired Vice President Hon. Moody Awori, and the second Retired Vice President Hon. Kalonzo Musyoka. We also know that the current Prime Cabinet Secretary Hon. Musalia Mudavadi, was also a beneficiary of this office before his new role in the current government.
While the picture painted by Mr. Mwaura of the government's commitment to supporting the office of the retired president in accordance with the law is the ideal situation, it saddens this office to inform the public that unfortunately that picture does not exist.
And our worry as an office is a precedence that is being set by the government of the day. Their decision to blatantly ignore the execution of Presidential Act number 11 of 2023 seems to open up a Pandora's Box that will leave a retired Head of State at the mercy of the government of the day and as Martin Luther King, Jr. said, ‘Injustice anywhere is a threat everywhere.’ Whatever affects one directly or indirectly, so help us, God. And we would like to clarify that this is not what we would want to happen. This is not how we want to engage because we respect the rule of law.
However, for any matters arising, we do acknowledge that there are offices concerned and we do hope that they will be able to pick it up and rest the issue. I conclude the statement.
