Leave is a legal right, and unused leave has a value that is owed to you when you leave. Knowing the rules helps you plan your year and check your final pay.

Annual leave

Under the Employment Act, an employee is entitled to at least 21 working days of paid leave after every 12 consecutive months of service. Your contract may give more. Leave builds up through the year, so after six months you have earned about half of it, and an employee who leaves part-way through the year is owed leave for the time worked.

Other kinds of leave

  • Sick leave. After two months of service, an employee gets sick leave with full pay for up to seven days and half pay for the next seven days, with a doctor's certificate.
  • Maternity leave. Three months with full pay, and a mother may also take her annual leave separately.
  • Paternity leave. Two weeks with full pay.
  • Compassionate leave and study leave depend on your contract and your employer's policy.

Taking and carrying over leave

Employers can usually set when leave is taken, after consulting the employee, and must allow the leave to be taken in a reasonable way. The law lets an employee carry forward a limited amount of unused leave for a limited time, and your contract may set its own rules, so read it.

How leave pay is worked out

When you leave, accrued unused leave is paid out. A common method is to divide your monthly basic pay by 30 to get a daily rate and multiply it by the days owed. With KES 60,000 a month the daily rate is KES 2,000, so 10 unused days are worth KES 20,000. The method used in your contract applies. The severance pay calculator includes leave pay, and the leave liability and accrual calculator shows what an employer owes across all staff.

Tax on leave pay

Leave pay is part of your taxable pay in the month it is paid, so a large payout on leaving can push you into a higher band. Estimate the tax with the terminal dues tax calculator. Our guide on how redundancy and severance pay are taxed covers the other final payments.

Planning and recording leave

Employees should keep their own count of days taken and the balance. Employers should keep a register, and these templates help:

Common problems

  1. Leave that is refused year after year until it is lost.
  2. Leave pay calculated on a lower figure than the real basic pay.
  3. Sick days counted against annual leave when they should not be.
  4. No record of how many days have been taken.

What to do if your leave pay is wrong

Ask for the calculation in writing, check it against your contract and payslips and raise it with HR. If it is not resolved, the labour office can help.

Leave connects to several other parts of employment. Overtime and rest days are covered in overtime pay rules and tax in Kenya, and the free employee records register and contract tracker holds each person's start date, contract and leave entitlement in one place. Employers who want a simple picture of who is away can also use the weekly staff timesheet.

The law and your contract set the exact entitlements. Confirm them with the labour office or a registered professional.