President William Ruto has come under fire for allegedly frustrating retired President Uhuru Kenyatta and his mother former First Lady Mama Ngina Kenyatta.
Among the accusations leveled at President Ruto is failing to provide a fully furnished office for retired President Uhuru as required by the Retired President’s Benefit’s Act and also cancelling the fuels card and withdrawing the security of Mama Ngina.
The revelations were made by former State House Spokesperson Kanze Dena who is the administrator of the Retired President’s Uhuru’s office.
She said contrary to reports by Government Spokesperson Isaac Mwaura, State House has not allocated Uhuru with an office, neither has the office been maintained or the staff paid salaries – pending for the last two years.
Dena said efforts to get State House follow the law and provide the office with all its requirements have only resulted in threats and harassments.
She said despite the office of the former President being allocated about Sh 503 million in the budget, not a single penny has been paid or sent to the office. The retired President is forced to fund his own activities including running his office incurring heavy debts.
“Former President Uhuru runs his office, fuels the vehicles (fuel cards were cancelled) and pays the staff allowances through his personal funding. There is no government funding despite Parliament allocating Sh 503 million this financial year,” said Dena.
She said retired President Uhuru’s staff including herself and George Kariuki have not been on government payroll for months now after government refused to renew their contracts.
Dena said it was regrettable that they had to call a press conference and would have wished to resolve the issues behind the scenes, but they needed to correct the wrong impression created by Mwaura that all was well.
The revelations come at a time when the current Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua is said to be having almost similar challenges with the most publicised being the denial of aircrafts to attend official government business.
DP Gachagua is now said to be hiring private helicopters for his local travels will claims that his relationship with his boss President Ruto is sour.
