President Ruto and Uhuru spoke on the phone following complaints that his office has not been receiving money allocated to it. A committee led by the head of Public Service Felix Koskei has been made to look into the matter.
State House has reportedly held its first meeting to resolve the issue. The phone conversation was followed by a visit by Uhuru’s senior staff to State House. Ruto is said to have briefed the cabinet saying the issue had been resolved.
State House spokesman Hussein Mohamed wrote on his X handle:
“This morning, President William Ruto had a conversation with his predecessor in office, the 4th President Uhuru Kenyatta, regarding concerns about facilitating the functioning of the retired President’s office.”
“President Ruto has consequently constituted a team, led by the Head of Public Service, to immediately address all the issues raised, including the location of the retired President’s office and the attendant staff establishment.’’
On Monday, Uhuru Kenyatta’s spokesperson Kanze Dena came out to say that he had not received funds budgeted for his office.
“In the year 2022/2023, parliament allocated this office Ksh 655 million. To date, the office can only confirm absorption of roughly Ksh 28 million spread across the payment of allowances for domestic travel as well as facilitation of the two trips that I mentioned earlier that were honoured. 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,” she said.
A quick search on the same revealed that it is indeed true that that was the budgetary allocation. A business daily article was written to that effect.
”The financial year 2023/2024 that ends in a few weeks, the budget allocation for this office was Ksh 503 million. The year is ending without the office having any access to this allocation. The total amount for the two years that we have not had access to is approximately Ksh 1 billion,” Kanze pointed out.
In response to her, Government spokesman Isaac Mwaura on Monday dimissed Kanze Dena’s remarks saying the government was keen on the Presidential Retirement Benefits Act that accords a retired president a set of benefits including a monthly pension, entertainment allowance, house allowance, suitable office space, full medical and hospital cover amongst others.
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