Revealed: Ex-VP Moody Awori Has Never Received Pension Benefits Since His Retirement in 2007

FOR nearly two decades, former Vice President Moody Awori has served, led, and sacrificed for this nation. But today, at 91 years of age, Kenya Insights can reveal that the country has repaid that service with a staggering act of institutional negligence: not a single shilling in pension has ever been paid to the man who served as Kenya’s second in command under the late President Mwai Kibaki.

The explosive disclosure was made on Wednesday by State House Comptroller Katoo Ole Metito while appearing before the National Assembly’s Administration and Internal Security Committee. In a bombshell testimony that left MPs visibly unsettled, Ole Metito lifted the lid on a bitter standoff between his office and the National Treasury that has left Awori without a cent of his legally guaranteed retirement benefits since he stepped down from office in January 2008.

“Mr Awori has never received any pension,” the Comptroller told the stunned committee, tabling a bundle of unanswered letters he had written to the National Treasury requesting budgetary allocations for the former VP’s pension. “We have written letters to the National Treasury to allocate the amounts as required by the law, but we have not received any response from them. I don’t know why there is a delay.”

“Mr Awori has never received any pension. I don’t know why there is a delay.”

Awori, who turns 92 later this year and is one of Kenya’s most decorated public servants, led the country as Vice President and Minister of Home Affairs from September 2003 until January 2008, when President Kibaki named Kalonzo Musyoka as his successor following the disputed general election of December 2007. In a striking personal comparison, Ole Metito told the committee he himself had been receiving his parliamentary pension without fail ever since he retired from the National Assembly, where he served as the Member of Parliament for Kajiado South from 2003 until 2022. His pension, he noted wryly, arrives in his account even before his State House salary does.

Under the Retirement Benefits (Deputy President and Designated State Officers) Act, a retired Vice President is entitled to a monthly pension equivalent to 80 percent of their last monthly salary while in office.

They are also entitled to a lump sum payment on retirement equivalent to one year’s salary for each term served, two saloon vehicles and one four-wheel drive vehicle to be replaced every four years, a fuel allowance of 15 percent of the current monthly salary of the sitting Deputy President, and full medical cover including overseas treatment for the entitled person, their spouse, and dependent children.

Beyond financial benefits, the law also provides retired Vice Presidents with a full complement of staff including two drivers, one personal assistant, one accountant, one secretary, two housekeepers, two senior support staff, two cooks, two gardeners, two cleaners, and armed security guards on request. Diplomatic passports for the entitled person and their spouse, access to the VIP lounge at all airports in Kenya, and a fully equipped office with maintenance expenses round out the package.

Ole Metito clarified that while State House has uploaded Awori’s details to the Social Health Authority (SHA) and has provided government vehicles that are regularly serviced, the critical monthly pension and the lump sum retirement package have been withheld entirely due to the Treasury’s failure to respond to State House’s budget requests.

State House Comptroller Katoo Ole Metito when he appeared before the National Committee on Administration and Internal Security at the County Hall Nairobi on Wednesday, May 14, 2025 to review and consider FY 2025/2026 budget estimates.| NATION

SAITOTI WIDOW ALSO LEFT HANGING

The pension scandal does not end with Awori. Ole Metito also told the committee that the widow of the late former Vice President George Saitoti, who died in a helicopter crash in June 2012, has similarly not been receiving her legally mandated spousal benefits. Under the same Act, the surviving spouse of a deceased entitled person is entitled to 50 percent of the pension that would have been payable to the former VP.

Saitoti, who served as Vice President under President Daniel arap Moi from 1989 to 1997 and again from 1999 to 2002, died alongside five others when a police helicopter he was travelling in went down in the Ngong Hills. It has been almost fourteen years since his death, and his widow has been fighting the same bureaucratic wall as Awori himself.

The revelations place the National Treasury in an acutely embarrassing position. The same government that has been embroiled in controversies over lavish spending and perks for current officials has apparently allowed one of the country’s oldest living statesmen to reach his tenth decade without the state honouring its legal obligations to him. Requests for comment from the National Treasury had not been responded to by the time of going to press.

A LIFE OF SERVICE UNREWARDED

Moody Awori’s life of public service is long and distinguished. First elected as the Member of Parliament for Funyula Constituency in Busia District in 1983, he broke ranks with the ruling KANU party in 2002 to join the National Rainbow Coalition that swept Mwai Kibaki to power. He served as Chairman of NARC’s top decision-making organ before being appointed Minister of Home Affairs in January 2003 and elevated to the Vice Presidency just eight months later in September of that year.

He is also the founder and former chairman of the Association for the Physically Disabled of Kenya, and holds an honorary doctorate from the Southern New Hampshire University in recognition of his decades of work for the disadvantaged. The Kenyan Government has decorated him with two high-level state awards, including the Elder of the Burning Spear.

The committee is expected to summon the National Treasury to account for the delay. Members of Parliament expressed outrage at the revelation and demanded that Ole Metito provide a detailed dossier of all correspondence exchanged between State House and the Treasury on the matter. It remains to be seen whether Awori will live to see the state honour its obligations to him.