Details Of President Ruto's Phonecall Conversation With Uhuru Kenyatta

President William Ruto on Tuesday, June 11 held a phone conversation with his predecessor Uhuru Kenyatta. 

In a statement, State House Spokesperson Hussein Mohamed said Ruto and Uhuru discussed concerns about facilitating the functioning of the retired President’s office.

“This morning, President William Ruto had a conversation with his predecessor in office, the 4th President, President Uhuru Kenyatta, regarding concerns about facilitating the functioning of the retired President’s office,” read the statement in part.

Following the meeting, President Ruto constituted a team led by Head of Public Service Felix Koskei to address the issues raised by Uhuru’s office.

“President Ruto has consequently constituted a team, led by the Head of Public Service, to immediately address all the issues raised, including the location of the retired President’s office and the attendant staff establishment,” Hussein added.

This comes a day after former State House Spokesperson Kanze Dena claimed that Uhuru has been running his office using his own money.

Addressing the media on Monday, Dena noted that the former Head of State was not enjoying a fully furnished office as required by the law.

"On the issue of the office, before retirement and during his retirement, the former President Uhuru Kenyatta has been sought to undertake various international roles in his capacity as a former head of state. These engagements necessitated the need to identify and establish a suitable office for the former president to enable him to carry out these roles.

"With no response from State House and a lack of commitment to finalize on the issue of the office space, H.E. the former president identified a suitable office space and went ahead to fully furnish and equip it from his pocket," Kanze remarked.

She also mentioned that the government has declined to renew her contract together with that of Administrator George Kariuki.

Further Dena claimed that the government has been intimidating Uhuru’s staff via phone calls at night and some being removed from the former president’s office unceremoniously.

Additionally, the former State House Spokesperson announced that the government is yet to give Uhuru’s office a total of sh 1 billion budget allocation for the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 financial years.

In response, government spokesperson Isaac Mwaura said the government had allocated Uhuru the Nyari office that was used by the late Mwai Kibaki but he declined.

Mwaura claimed that the retired president has been provided with 14 vehicles, which are fueled and maintained by the State House.