Revealed: Taxpayers Pay Mama Ngina Kenyatta Sh560,000 Monthly

Kenyan taxpayers have been paying Mama Ngina Kenyatta a monthly salary of more than Sh500,000, it has now emerged.

Business Daily on Friday reported that it had obtained documents from the Presidency showing that Mama Ngina has been pocketing Sh568,218 tax-free monthly income, raising questions whether the payment is legal.

The pay is 50 percent of the pension that Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya’s first President, would be earning if he was alive, according to the publication.

Mama Ngina’s salary is also exempted from tax in line with the Presidential Retirement Benefits Act of 2003.

National Treasury told Business Daily that the payment was made to her in her capacity as a surviving spouse to founding President Kenyatta who passed away in 1978. 

At the time of Kenyatta’s death, there was no existing law on the pension and benefits that his widow would be entitled to.

In 2003, Parliament passed the Presidential Retirement Benefits Act which provides a legal framework for payment of pensions to former Presidents and their surviving spouses.

“Upon the death of a serving President or of a retired President who is in receipt of or who is entitled to a pension under this Act, his surviving spouse shall be entitled to benefits amounting to fifty percent of such pension,” the Act reads in part.

It is not clear whether the 2003 law can be backdated to apply to Mama Ngina whose husband died in office twenty-five years before.

Former presidents are entitled to a monthly pension that is equal to 80 percent of the current President’s salary.

Presently, President Uhuru takes home Sh1.44 million monthly salary which translates to Sh1.15 million pension entitlements for former Presidents.