Full Speech By Kanze Dena On Uhuru's Main Issues With Ruto

On Monday, June 10, Kanze Dena, the Director of Communications in former President Uhuru Kenyatta's office addressed the nation regarding claims of the Kenya Kwanza administration leaving the former government in the cold in terms of financially sustaining operations at Uhuru's office.

According to Dena, Uhuru's office has not been furnished by the state neither were new cars purchased to serve the former President, contrary to sentiments made by government officials that include Government Spokesperson Isaac Mwaura and State House Spokesperson Hussein Mohamed.

Read Kanze Dena's full speech below:

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen of the press and thank you for honoring our invite.

We invited you here today to give a formal response on an issue that was addressed by the Government Spokesperson Mr. Isaac Mwaura on the 31st of May 20224. That is the Benefits of the 3rd Retired President H. E Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta. I will respond to the matters he alluded to and then I will state the position of the Office of the 3rd Retired President. 

I believe you all have received a press pack. It contains documents that will serve as evidence of the matters I will address today, as well as an excerpt of the Government Spokesperson’s statement addressing the issue at hand. At the end of my statement, I will welcome questions. 

Kanze Dena addressing the media on June 10, 2024. /OFFICE OF THE 4TH PRESIDENT

Paragraph 12 of Mr. Mwaura’s statement talks about the Lump sum payment of Ksh48 million paid to the former President as gratuity, personal monthly allowances, and medical cover. I can confirm that H. E did receive his gratuity in full and is receiving his monthly allowances. These monies are paid by the Pension Fund that is domiciled in the Treasury.  I would like to emphasize that every civil servant on contract once they complete service they are given a gratuity. 

The former Deputy President now the 5th President of the Republic of Kenya, for his service as a deputy President during the last regime. Let me also clarify the exemption from tax is provided for by the law. I make this special to indicate that it is not a favour as insinuated by the highlight on the statement ‘exempted from tax’.

On the issue of the retired President enjoying a fully furnished and maintained office space of his choice, we all know the number of times State House has made it clear that the only office available and are willing to maintain is the one in Nyari that was used by the late President Mwai Kibaki. 

State House spokesperson made it very clear during a question and answer session at a press briefing on President Ruto’s visit to the United States of America, held 2 weeks ago. It did catch us by surprise when Mr. Mwaura confidently stated that an office fully furnished by the government of the former president’s choice had been provided. 

On the issue of vehicles given. I can confirm that the former President was given 2 Toyota Land Cruisers, 1 Mercedes Benz, 1 Subaru Forester and 1 Range Rover, not 2 as alluded to by the Government spokesperson. On the number of fuel cards given it is true that each of the vehicles has a fuel card. However, these cards have not been operational as they were blocked by State House in March 2023 to date.

The 3 fuel cards given to Mama Ngina and the 3 Range Rovers in her custody were allocated to her by the late President Daniel Arap Moi and the late Mwai Kibaki.  No facilitation has been accorded towards repairs and maintenance of all vehicles under the office of the former President.

We are aware that an incomplete requisition form has been circulated by State House as evidence of facilitation towards repairs and maintenance.  The forms are in your press packs and you will see that no action was taken.

One of them has the wording approved and a signature. That signature ladies and gentlemen belongs to the A.I.E holder in the office of the 4th President, Mr. Kinuthia Mbugua. Despite clarifying that the document was not accurate the journalists still went ahead and used the document as evidence of services rendered. 

As I finalize on the issues raised in the statement, on the issue of staff, the Spokesperson correctly stated that the number of staff the retired President is entitled to is 34.  The list provided however only accounts for 32 staff members.

What they did not capture is the data of 2 staff who are still waiting for the renewal of their contracts. That is the Administrator Mr. George Kariuki and Mrs Kanze Dena Mararo who is the Senior Director of Communication. We have provided that list as well in the press pack.

Ladies and Gentlemen, let me at this juncture elaborate on the situation in the Office of the 3rd Retired President of the Republic of Kenya.

1. On the issue of the office. A formal letter was written to State House requesting a valuation of the office that was identified by President Kenyatta as suitable for him to carry out his duties. However, the office did not receive a response on the issue for State House. However, the communication that came through was via text message by the then-in-charge of the Retired President's Office Mr. John Makumi. The communication indicated the rent estimates for the property in question. That is the office selected by the former President.  That communication is in the pack for your perusal.

International Trips

To date, the office still awaits engagement on the issue of the office. Occasioned by the fact that H.E President Kenyatta was appointed by the East African Community Heads of State as the Facilitator during the 22nd Ordinary Meeting of East Africa Heads of State Summit held on 22nd July 2022, in Arusha, Tanzania. It was paramount that an office needed to be established, to enable him to carry out his mandate. With no response from statehouse and a lack of commitment to finalize on the issue of space. H.E. facilitated the office space and fully furnished and equipped it from his pocket. To date, the office runs on his goodwill. 

Cars

2. The Vehicles quoted by the spokesperson and confirmed by me, were allocated to the retired President to ease transition as he waited for the enactment of the Retired Benefits Act. He mentioned 12 cars among these are the 3 Range Rovers that belong to Mama Ngina Kenyatta. So in essence what is available at the former President’s disposal is 9 vehicles which constitute those for his personal use, and security. A conversation had begun in the early months after the transition led by Mr. Makumi and in your pack you will find a letter indicating how the vehicles President Kenyatta is entitled to would be purchased down to the selection of the color. Then the conversation hit a deep and froze. To date, no discussions have taken place concerning the issue. 

3. The Act stipulates that the former President is entitled to 4 international trips. Since retirement to date only 2 such trips have been honored. From the Press, we did get to know that the issue is the size of the delegation a matter that was communicated verbally. If the issue was truly the size of the delegation, why not then cater for the 10 pax as advised by Foreign Affairs? Then there was the issue of seeking approval on which trips to undertake. This was communicated by Mr. Makumi that the former President could only submit requests for international trips and wait to be cleared on which trips He could embark on. It begs the question was the decision not to facilitate the former President because of his entourage or that State House did not deem it fit for him to undertake those trips? 

Budget Allocation

4. On to the main issue. Budget allocation. In the year 2022/2023 parliament budget allocation to this office was Ksh655 million. To date, the office can only confirm the absorption of Ksh28 million spread across the payment of an allowance for local travel and domestic travel as well as the facilitation of the 2 trips that have been honoured so far. This is approximately 4.4% of the total budget. This is minus payment of salaries and medical insurance. 

5. The year 2023/2024 which ends in a few weeks the budget allocation to this office was Ksh503 million shillings. The year is ending without the office having any access to this allocation. What we can confirm is that salaries have been paid as well as medical insurance. 

6. The quagmire that the 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 the accounting officer have fallen on deaf ears. This has forced the Retired President to run the office from his pocket, paying for all the bills the office incurs.

7. The other issue is that State House chooses a verbal form of communication on official issues or chooses not to respond to correspondence generated by this office. This includes the pending renewal of contracts of 2 members of staff.  In your pack, you will come across documents that clearly present the situation that the office finds.  We register a lack of commitment from the Kenya Kwanza government in its execution of the Presidential Benefits Act. 

8.  In conclusion, while the picture painted by the Government Spokesperson is the ideal situation as stipulated in the Presidential Benefits Act, it saddens me to inform Kenyans that unfortunately, the Picture Painted by the spokesperson does not exist.  We worry that the precedence that has been set by the Kenya Kwanza government opens up a Pandora’s box that will leave a retired Head of State at the mercy of the government of the day.

THANK YOU AND GOD BLESS