Uhuru's Cabinet Secretaries bag Ksh.20.8M each in send-off package

The curtain fell on his Jubilee party administration with the recent exit of his old cabinet, who held the fort until the day they officially held their last cabinet meeting chaired by President Ruto, and on the following day, a new cabinet was named.

The Constitution of Kenya says that Cabinet Secretaries are individually and collectively accountable to the President for the exercise of their powers and the performance of their functions.

The retiring president’s exit package is well known, but what about his closest lieutenants, the Cabinet Secretaries who implemented all that his administration set out to accomplish?

According to the Salaries and Remuneration Commission, which determines pay for the current administration, "a State officer serving on fixed term shall serve on contract and be paid a service gratuity at the end of the term at the rate of 31 percent of annual basic pay for every year served."

In the year 2020, shortly after Members of Parliament awarded themselves hefty pensions through the Parliamentary Pensions (Amendment) Bill, 2019, this award included a gratuity and a monthly pension for former legislators who served between 1984 and 2001.

This must have woken up Uhuru’s Cabinet which began a discussion to see if they too could enjoy a comfortable send-off package. The Cabinet Secretaries in 2020 noted that, unlike Parliament, the Judiciary, and part of the Executive, they were not beneficiaries of pensions on exiting their high positions.

The Cabinet Secretaries said there was apprehension among some of them that some, if not most of them, may not be taken up in the next government; therefore, there is a need to have a good package or a pension that will see them move on comfortably with life after their term ends.

Currently, a CS earns Sh924,000 per month as basic pay based on the 2022 Kenya Gazette Notice by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC). Within the executive, the president, his deputy, and governors are entitled to 31 percent of their basic pay upon retirement as a pension for life.

The CSs leave with their last salaries and a gratuity calculated at the rate of 31 percent of annual basic pay for every year served.

The Cabinet Secretaries who served in the immediate past administration will therefore go home with up to Sh20.8 million each in gratuity payments.

However, observers say this omission remains a weak link in the fight against corruption as the Cabinet Secretaries, who control budgets that run into billions of shillings, might want to line their exit nests with “soft material” using their own devices if the government does not take care of them in a better way.

The Cabinet Secretaries will have for exit company their close collaborators in the government ministries, the Principal Secretaries, who will go home with approximately similar amounts to the CSs who have served since 2013 when Uhuru Kenyatta assumed power.

The veteran Cabinet Secretaries in Uhuru’s administration since 2014 include the long-serving Najib Balala who was a cabinet minister in the Kibaki Administration, James Macharia, Amina Mohamed, Fred Matiang’i Raychelle Omamo, and Adan Mohamed, who will take home a minimum of Sh20.8 million as gratuity.

The only surviving members of Uhuru’s cabinet in Ruto’s government are Monica Juma, who was retained as Security Advisor to the President, and Simon Chelugui who was retained as Cabinet Secretary for Cooperatives and Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

When top state officials, such as the President and his Deputy, the Chief Justice, and both Speakers of Parliament, retire knowing they will have a cushioned life full of perks, security, and large pensions, Cabinet Secretaries simply exit the public service and return to their daily grind, wherever that may be.

No wonder one cabinet secretary in Kibaki’s government once said that he thought his mobile phone was malfunctioning (it went silent) once he exited the “big CS office” and this remains the fate of most of the current Cabinet Secretaries. 

Some of them heartily participated in the thick of activities leading up to the last general elections and “uncharacteristically” beat drums in this or that direction. Publicly, it has been said by those in power now that such actions are water under the bridge, but the real test of their freedom is yet to come.

As they head out with little to show for their energetic involvement in government during their time, will their security, freedom of association, and search for daily bread be impeded by their past actions or utterances?