President Ruto has constituted a team led by the Head of Public Service to address facilitation concerns raised by the office of former President Uhuru Kenyatta.
State House Spokesperson Hussein Mohammed Tuesday said the immediate action follows a conversation between the two leaders.
“This morning, President William Ruto had a conversation with his predecessor in office, the 4th President, President Uhuru Kenyatta, regarding concerns about facilitating the functioning of the retired President’s office” he announced on X.
“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” he explained.
On Monday, the office of the fourth president of Kenya accused the government of allegedly denying them their budgetary allocations contrary to the Presidential Retirement Benefits Act.
In a statement read by Kenyatta’s spokesperson Kanze Dena, State House had not remitted a single cent of the Ksh503 million budgetary allocation in the current financial year forcing the former president to use his own money to run the office.
Kanze said the office had only received Ksh28 million in allowances for domestic travel and two official trips.
“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 1 billion Kenya shillings” she said.
” To date the office can only confirm absorption of 28 million spread across payment of allowance for local travel and domestic travel as well as facilitation of the 2 trips that have been honored so far. This is approximately 4.4% of the total budget. This is minus payment of salaries and medical insurance” she added.
The retired president also complained that he was still using the same old vehicles he was left with upon handing over power at Kasarani stadium.
“ To date no discussions have been reviewed, we don’t know if the cars were purchased or not. The fuel cards given as well as maintenance of the vehicles have not been operational as they were blocked by state house in March 2023” Kanze said regarding the provision of new cars.
The issue of former first lady Mama Ngina Kenyatta also cropped up with claims of withdrawal of her drivers and security detail on the 18th of July last year.
They also said the non-provision of suitable office space for the retired president had forced him to identify one on his own and personally furnish it.
The office said the state of affairs contravened the Presidential Retirement Benefits Act No.11 of 2003.
