Leave entitlement in Kenya: annual, sick, maternity and paternity

Kenyan leave entitlements are set by the Employment Act, 2007. They are a floor, not a ceiling: a contract, a collective agreement or a Wage Order can give more, but nothing can give less. Here is what every employer must provide, and how the days actually accrue.

Annual leave: 21 working days

Under section 28, an employee who has completed twelve consecutive months of service is entitled to at least 21 working days of paid annual leave. Working days means the days the employee would otherwise have worked, so weekends and public holidays inside a leave period are not counted against the entitlement.

For anyone who has not yet completed a full year, leave accrues at 1.75 days for each completed month of service. That is the figure to use when someone resigns mid-year and you are paying out untaken leave.

Completed months	Accrued leave days
3 months	5.25
6 months	10.5
9 months	15.75
12 months	21

Sick leave: 7 days full pay, then 7 days half pay

Section 30 gives an employee who has completed two consecutive months of service a minimum of seven days sick leave on full pay, then a further seven days on half pay, in each twelve-month period of service.

Two conditions attach. The employee must produce a certificate of incapacity signed by a qualified medical practitioner, and must notify the employer of the absence and its reason as soon as is reasonably practicable.

Many employers, and most collective agreements, are considerably more generous than the statutory minimum. Whatever you offer, record the full-pay and half-pay portions separately, because half-pay days change gross pay and therefore PAYE, SHIF, NSSF and the Housing Levy for that month.

Maternity leave: three months on full pay

Section 29 gives a female employee three months of maternity leave with full pay. There is no minimum service qualification. At the end of it she is entitled to return to the same job, or to a reasonably suitable equivalent on terms no less favourable.

Maternity leave does not extinguish annual leave. The two entitlements run separately, so annual leave continues to accrue during the maternity period.

Paternity leave: two weeks on full pay

A male employee is entitled to two weeks of paternity leave with full pay. As with maternity leave, there is no minimum service requirement.

What the Act does not cover

• Compassionate or bereavement leave has no statutory entitlement. In practice most employers grant it, often drawing it from annual leave. Put your rule in writing.
• Study, unpaid and sabbatical leave are entirely contractual.
• Public holidays are separate from annual leave. An employee required to work a public holiday is normally compensated under their contract or the applicable Wage Order.

Getting the arithmetic right

Leave is where small errors become expensive, because every untaken day is money owed at exit. Three things are worth automating:

1. Accrual. 1.75 days per completed month, running from the joining date rather than the calendar year.
2. Balances that survive approvals. A request that is approved and then cancelled must return the days.
3. The exit calculation. Accrued minus taken, valued at the current daily rate, paid with the final salary.

Yolaworks HR tracks accrual per employee, handles approvals with an audit trail, and carries the untaken balance straight into the final payslip when someone leaves. Free for 30 days, no card needed.