The government is currently paying Mama Ngina Kenyatta a monthly ‘salary’ of more than Sh. 600,000. Documents from the National Treasury indicate that Mama Ngina is currently receiving a pay of Sh. 679,800 every month.
This is an increase from the slightly over half a million shillings she was receiving every monthly during President Uhuru Kenyatta’s tenure.
The payments to Mama Ngina first came to light in 2019 when it was revealed that taxpayers were paying Mama Ngina Kenyatta a salary of over Sh. 500,000 every month.
At the time, Mama Ngina was getting a Sh. 568,218 tax-free monthly salary – courtesy of the taxpayer.
Mama Ngina earned fifty per cent of the pension that Mzee Kenyatta would earn if he were alive. The salary is also exempted from tax in line with the Presidential Retirement Benefits Acts of 2003.
Apparently, the former first lady’s monthly payment was made in her capacity as a surviving spouse to founding President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta who passed on in 1978.
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When Mzee Kenyatta died in 1978, there was no existing law on the pension and benefits that his spouse would be entitled to.
In 2003, Parliament enacted the Presidential Retirement Benefits Act which established 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 per cent of such pension,” the Act reads in part.
