Maternity, paternity and pre-adoptive leave in Kenya
The maternity, paternity and pre-adoptive leave a Kenyan employer must give on full pay, the records the Employment Act expects, and how to track them.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Running a business businesses in Kenya
A receptionist tells you she is expecting. A week later the workshop foreman asks for time off when his child is born, and a long-serving bookkeeper mentions that she and her husband are about to adopt. Three conversations, three different entitlements, and all of them on full pay.
For a small Kenyan employer the law is short and clear. The harder part is administration: making sure the leave is recorded properly, the pay keeps running and nothing is booked against the wrong balance. This article covers what the Employment Act requires and how to keep the record straight.
Maternity leave: three months on full pay
The Employment Act entitles a female employee to three months' maternity leave with full pay. This is section 29 of the Act.
Two words in that sentence do most of the work. "Three months" sets the length, and "full pay" means the employee's pay does not drop while she is away. Agree the start and expected return dates with her in writing, plan cover for her duties early, and note the dates in her file.
Paternity leave: two weeks on full pay
The same section gives a male employee two weeks' paternity leave with full pay. Fathers sometimes do not ask, assuming the entitlement belongs only to mothers, or worry that asking will be held against them. A short line in your staff handbook stating the entitlement removes the doubt.
Pre-adoptive leave
Section 29A of the Employment Act provides one month's pre-adoptive leave with full pay. Adoption timetables are often uncertain, so ask the employee to tell you as soon as dates are known, and record the leave when it starts rather than when it was first discussed.
The leave record the Act expects
The Employment Act requires an employer to keep a written record for each employee that includes leave taken and due, maternity and sick leave, rest days and warning letters. An authorised officer can inspect the records for the preceding thirty six months.
That record sits beside the other leave rules. The Act gives at least twenty-one working days of annual leave with full pay after every twelve consecutive months of service, and at least one rest day in every seven days. A labour officer looking at your records will expect to see each kind of leave identified for what it is, which is why the category matters as much as the dates. Annual leave and rest days and sick leave cover the other entitlements.
No maternity leave type in Achekam: the manual path
Achekam's payroll keeps annual, sick, family responsibility and unpaid leave, with monthly accrual. A line manager approves their own team's leave, and nobody approves their own. Unpaid leave does not cut pay automatically: payroll is warned and decides.
There is no maternity, parental or study leave type, and new leave types cannot be added today. Do not force maternity, paternity or pre-adoptive leave into one of the existing types:
- Not unpaid leave. The law requires full pay, and an unpaid leave entry would prompt payroll to consider a deduction that must not happen.
- Not annual leave. It would use up the employee's accrued annual days, which remain hers or his to take.
- Not sick or family responsibility leave. It would distort those balances and misdescribe the absence in the record.
Instead, keep these absences on a short register outside the leave module, one line per absence: the employee, the type of leave, the section of the Act it falls under, the agreed start and return dates and who approved it. Store the written request, your approval and any supporting documents in Document Centre, Achekam's folder-based store, in a folder for each employee, tagged with the leave type so they can be found by search. When something changes, upload the new document as a new version; earlier versions are kept.
Running pay during leave
Because each of these leaves is on full pay, the employee stays on the normal pay run. Achekam's pay runs can be monthly, fortnightly or weekly, with each period's overtime, commission, allowances, reimbursements and unpaid leave entered as variable inputs, and the payslip goes out as usual as a PDF that can be downloaded or e-mailed.
The question to settle in advance is what "full pay" includes for someone whose pay normally varies. For a salaried employee it is straightforward. For a sales assistant on commission or a technician who regularly works overtime, agree with your adviser how full pay is measured, write the answer down, and apply it the same way to everyone.
A checklist for each request:
- Receive the request in writing, with the expected dates.
- Confirm the entitlement and the dates in writing.
- Add the absence to the register and file the documents.
- Keep the employee on the pay run at full pay, with variable inputs agreed.
- Arrange cover and tell the team what they need to know.
- Diary the return date and confirm it a week or two before.
- Keep the records for at least the thirty six months an officer may inspect.
Employers in both Nigeria and Kenya will find this and other gaps in payroll tooling compared in payroll gaps in Nigeria and Kenya.
The Employment Act, 2007 on Kenya Law sets out the minimum terms of employment, including the leave provisions and the records employers must keep. Read sections 29 and 29A there before you write your own policy.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
