The High Court has declared unconstitutional provisions of the Presidential Retirement Benefits Act that restrict retired presidents from holding political party office, ruling that former heads of state retain their constitutional political rights after leaving office.
Justice Bahati Mwamuye, in a judgment delivered on Monday, September 21, 2026, declared Sections 4(1), 4(2), 4(3) and the entirety of Section 6 of the Act unconstitutional, null and void.
The ruling means Parliament cannot rely on the contested provisions to withhold or reduce a former president’s retirement benefits, including on the basis that the former leader holds political party office.
At the centre of the case was Article 151(3) of the Constitution, which protects retirement benefits payable to a former president from being varied to their disadvantage during their lifetime.
Justice Mwamuye said ordinary legislation could not override that constitutional protection or give Parliament powers not provided for in the Constitution.
He also struck down Section 6, which barred a retired president from holding political party office for more than six months after leaving State House.
“The office of President is held for a constitutionally defined period. Upon cessation of office, the former President ceases to exercise the coercive and executive authority of the State,” Justice Mwamuye said.
“The person thereafter stands in a fundamentally different constitutional position: he or she is a private citizen, albeit one who has previously occupied the highest elective office in the Republic,” he added.
The judge found that continued political influence by a former president did not amount to an exercise of executive authority and could not, on its own, create a constitutional disability.
He said it would be unconstitutional to control the political life of a private citizen and found the restriction interfered with political rights protected under Article 38.
The decision comes days after a separate High Court ruling by Justice Lawrence Mugambi upheld Section 6, finding that the restriction on retired presidents holding party leadership beyond six months was a reasonable limitation of political rights.
The contrasting judgments create competing High Court positions on the political rights of former presidents, with the latest decision directly affecting former President Uhuru Kenyatta and his role in Jubilee.