A fleet of cars and R90m per year: Kenyatta vs Kenya offers a window into post-presidential perks

Former resident of Kenya Uhuru Kenyatta. (GONZALO FUENTES/AFP

• Kenya’s government says Uhuru Kenyatta wants R18 million worth of cars because he doesn’t like the fleet he already has.
• Kenyatta’s office says he is owed R145 million.
• The fight unveils a detailed view of the benefits a former Kenyan president can expect – and what he may actually get.

A fight between former Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta and the government that succeeded him, under William Ruto, has opened a window into the perks enjoyed – at least on paper – by a retired head of state in the country.

Kenyatta is vocally unhappy with how he is being treated, and has put numbers to his unhappiness.

In the previous financial year, his office said, it had been allocated KSh655 million, the equivalent of some R90 million.

For the 2023/24 year, that number is considerably lower, at KSh503 million, or about R73 million.

But Kenyatta has not been able to actually access most of that, leaving him owed, by his accounting, some R145 million over two years.

His office is frustrated that it can’t get straight answers about the money, his spokesperson, Kanze Dena-Mararo, said in a press conference broadcast from the Uhuru Kenyatta Institute in Nairobi.

“State house chooses a verbal form of communication on official issues or chooses not to respond to correspondence generated by this office,” she said.

It sets a dangerous precedent for future retired presidents, she said.

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Part of the fight is about a fleet of cars.

Upon retirement, Kenyatta was given two Toyota Land Cruisers, a Mercedes Benz, a Subaru Forester and a Range Rover, his spokesperson said.

But those just happen to be the vehicles he left with, said Dena-Mararo.

“The vehicles allocated to the former president for personal use are not new. They were part of his motorcade when he left Kasarani after the inauguration ceremony [for Uhuru].

The idea was that Kenyatta would use those vehicles on a “transitional basis” while new ones were bought, she said. 

But that’s not entirely how it went down, said government spokesperson Isaac Mwaura.

The budget of the former head of state’s daily subsistence falls under the State House Comptroller, so it should be directed to that office instead of the Office of the President, said Mwaura. 

But the Presidency believes Kenyatta should be happy with the cars, which were bought between 2020 and 2023, and are “very befitting the person of the third retired president.”

The government added that Kenyatta had sent a request for the purchase of a Range Rover Vogue (First Edition), a Mercedes Benz S500, a Toyota Land Cruiser ZX-VXR KO6 and a Toyota Fortuner.

The government said the cost was a “staggering KSh125 million, or some R18 million.

Dena-Mararo said past presidents were better looked after when it came to cars.

She said:

Kenyatta’s other issue was the allocation of office space and furniture.

Dena-Mararo said her boss wrote to State House for an evaluation of possible offices he had identified, but got no response. 

Since Kenyatta had numerous international engagements, some linked to the African Union and the East African Community, it was a matter of importance to establish an office.

Kenyatta went ahead and furnished an office out of his own pocket, she said.

But Mwaura said the government had offered Kenyatta the same office that was used by Kibaki between 2013 and 2022.

He alleged that Kenyatta rejected the office, “preferring that the government lease his own private home”.

He said this was “an adventure that the government cannot engage in as this is a serious conflict of interest”.

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