- This morning, President William Ruto had a conversation with his predecessor in office, the 4th President, President Uhuru Kenyatta.
- On Monday, spokesperson to the office of the fourth president Kanze Dena alleged that the former president has been deprived of funds.
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President William Ruto held a conversation with his predecessor retired President Uhuru Kenyatta on Tuesday.
This is according to a statement by Statehouse spokesperson Hussein Mohamed.
"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 said.
On Monday, the spokesperson to the Office of the Fourth President Kanze Dena alleged that the former president had been deprived of funds.
Out of Sh655 million allocated to the office in the 2022-23 financial year, the office now claims they have received only Sh28 million.
"That is approximately 4.4 per cent of the total budget that year," Kanze said.
This, Kanze said, is excluding payment of salaries and medical insurance.
In the Financial Year 2023-24, which is coming to an end, the office was allocated Sh503 million.
According to Kanze, nothing has hit the account of the retired president from the allocation.
"We can confirm that salaries have been paid as well as medical insurance but we cannot allude to how much it is," she said.
According to Kanze, the lack of budgetary allocation has forced the former President to foot some of his expenses from his pocket.
"The lack of access to put rightful budget allocation has forced the former President Uhuru Kenyatta to run the office from his pocket, paying all the bills the office incurs," Kanze said.
At the same time, the office distanced itself from budget estimates tabled in Parliament.
"Our position is that we had no input on the budget estimates that informed the allocation of Sh450 million that Treasury projects to allocate the office in the coming year 2025/26 and Sh475 million for FY 2026/27," Kanze said.
She also alleged that Uhuru is currently using vehicles given to him on a transitional basis, those which he departed with from Kasarani after the handing-over ceremony in September 2022.
"After the transition, a conversation on the purchase of the vehicles as required by the Act commenced between the two offices...," Kanze said.
"The identification of the vehicles was done down to the colour of the vehicles and then the conversation stops, nod discussions have been revived, we don’t know if the cars were purchased or not."
Kanze said the vehicles are two Toyota Land Cruisers, one Mercedes Benz, and one Ranger Rover used by the former First Lady.
She went on to point out that among the four Toyota Prados assigned to the retired president, three are used by his security detail.
This is in addition to a Toyota Prado used by the office and a Subaru Forester.
"What the government spokesperson did not clarify is that the vehicles were not new," she added.
She further claimed that Uhuru is yet to be provided with a fully furnished and maintained office.
Kanze said the State House made it clear that the office in Nyari should be the one used by Uhuru as the government bought it.
"The statement that the retired President enjoys a fully furnished and maintained office is incorrect. To date, the matter has never been resolved," Kanze said.