Kenya has granted The Gates Foundation (formerly The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) a special status that would see its expatriate officials granted privileges and immunity in the country.
The Foundation is chaired by US billionaire businessman and philanthropist Bill Gates, who is best known for co-founding the software company Microsoft with his childhood friend Paul Allen.
Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi said that the Foundation will be covered under the Privileges and Immunity Act.
“The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, in this order referred to as ‘the Foundation’, being a charitable trust established to fight poverty, disease, and inequality in over one hundred and forty countries globally, and with which the Government of Kenya has entered into an agreement for cooperation, is hereby declared to be an organisation to which section 11 of the Act shall apply,” he said in a Legal Notice dated September 19, 2024 and published on October 4, 2024.
“The Foundation shall have the privileges and immunities specified in paragraphs 3 and 4 of Part I of the Fourth Schedule to the Act. The director, officials, and staff of the Foundation shall, while residing in Kenya and performing duties in the service of the Foundation, have the privileges and immunities specified in paragraphs 1, 2, 3,4,5,6, and 7 of Part III of the Fourth Schedule to the Act,” Mr Mudavadi said.
Part 111 of the Fourth Schedule of the Privileges and Immunity Act grants immunity and privileges to officers and employees.
For example, it grants them immunity from suit and legal process in respect of things done or omitted to be done in the course of the performance of official duties.
It also grants exemption from direct taxes upon the emoluments received as an officer or servant of the organisation besides shielding them from national service obligations.
“Immunity from immigration restrictions and alien registration in respect of the officers and servants and their spouses and dependent relatives. The like privileges in respect of exchange control facilities as are accorded to officials of equivalent status forming part of a diplomatic mission” the Act states.
“The like facilities, for the officers and servants and their spouses and dependent relatives, for repatriation in times of international crises as are afforded to diplomatic missions. Exemption from tax or duty on the importation of furniture, personal property and household effects of an officer or servant first arriving to take up his post in Kenya” the law further stated.
Mr Mudavadi however said paragraph five of the Privileges and Immunity Act in respect of exchange control facilities as are accorded to officials of equivalent status forming part of a diplomatic mission would only be applicable to non-Kenyan staff of the Foundation.
“Paragraph 5 shall not apply to a citizen of Kenya or to any person who is ordinarily resident in Kenya except solely for the purpose of being an employee of, and working exclusively for the Foundation,” he said.
In Kenya, the Gates Foundation funds tools and technologies in agriculture, health, immunisation, nutrition, sanitation, financial services, gender equality, and family planning among others.
