The case for longer maternity leave in Kenya; a young mother's take
Violet Ng'endo, a mother of two who returned to work after three-month maternity leave only to find herself overwhelmed. She says maternity leave should be five months.
What you need to know:
- Longer maternity leave would provide mothers with the necessary time to recover physically and emotionally while bonding with their newborns.
- Currently, Section 29 of Employment Act provides for a minimum of three months of maternity leave, mandating employers to grant employees paid leave.
- Section 29(8) adds that male employees are entitled to two weeks of paternity leave with full pay.
When Violet Ng'endo, a mother of two, returned to work after taking her three-month-maternity leave, she found herself overwhelmed, overworked and battling against postpartum depression.
She says that she took her leave in the last month of her third trimester because she was heavily pregnant and could not work well.
“The hospital visits were frequent,” she remembers.
“My feet were so swollen that I had to wear slippers to work, and bending was a struggle.”
Despite working in customer service, she found herself doing a lot of fieldwork. She often had to rely on the assistance of clients, as she could only walk short distances before needing to rest.
By the time she was returning to work in January, she had only spent one-and-a-half months with her baby. Coping with postpartum depression, sleep deprivation, and the challenges of sleep training made the transition even more demanding.
“Although I had hired a nanny, I found that the nanny also struggled to understand the baby's needs. Dealing with breastfeeding complications added to the stress. I found myself crying at work a lot,” she admits.
“My baby's sleep issues meant I wasn't getting enough rest at night, yet I had to perform during the day.”
The situation became complex when her child was diagnosed with autism. While the cause of autism is uncertain, Violet wonders if the stress she experienced during pregnancy and the early months of her child's life could have played a role.
Her sentiments have been the subject of most women’s rights organisations' demands in the recent past.
With talks of a bill being tabled in Parliament to add three months of paid maternity leave and two weeks of paid paternity leave, many mothers view this as a positive step towards ensuring gender equity in the workplace.
Violet, for instance, believes that longer maternity leave, ideally five months, would provide mothers like her with the necessary time to recover physically and emotionally while bonding with their newborns.
Legal provisions
Currently, Section 29 of Employment Act, 2007, provides for a minimum of three months (90 days) of maternity leave, mandating employers to grant employees paid leave. Section 29(8) adds that male employees are entitled to two weeks of paternity leave with full pay.
Although these are the statutory minimum requirements, some private sector players such as Old Mutual Kenya lengthened maternity leave from three months to four months and adjusted paternity leave from two weeks to one month to provide support to partners.
Moreover, they introduced tele-counselling services accessible for all employees to tackle mental health issues. The declaration was made during the Old Mutual Women Network breakfast gathering in March last year.
In a groundbreaking policy, East African Breweries Limited (EABL) started giving female employees who experience pregnancy loss up to six-and-a-half months of paid leave to grieve.
Speaking about the policy at a women’s event last Friday, EABL Head of Sustainability Juanita Mramba underscored the importance of empowering women in all aspects of life, highlighting the pivotal role of corporate organisations in supporting initiatives that nurture an open environment where women can thrive and succeed.
“Empowering women isn’t just a moral imperative; it is also a strategic one. Through our #SheWalks platform, we firmly believe that by investing in women’s empowerment, we unlock untapped potential, ensure inclusivity, drive economic growth, and foster a more just and prosperous society for everyone,” Ms Mramba said at a Nairobi hotel.
Teachers
In the public sector, female teachers are eligible for four months of fully paid maternity leave exclusive of annual leave, while male ones are entitled to 21 days' paternity leave.
This development, which took effect two year ago, was in partial fulfilment of the collective bargaining agreement (2021–25) package with specific provisions for maternity, paternity and pre-adoptive leave.
In other countries, maternity leave policies vary. Here’s a glimpse of the duration in some of them.
Bulgaria offers an impressive 410 days of paid leave, starting 45 days before the delivery date of the child and covering 90 per cent of the employee's salary, paid by the Bulgarian National Health Insurance Fund.
Sweden provides 480 days for both parents, with parental leave set at 80 per cent of regular wages.
Germany guarantees 14 weeks of fully paid maternity leave (six weeks before birth and eight weeks after birth), with an option for up to three years of parental leave afterwards.
In most of these countries, maternity leave is paid by the national health insurance fund. In stark contrast, the United States has no national statutory parental leave, leaving it up to individual employers to offer packages, resulting in the US being among the worst countries globally for parental leave.
In many African countries, maternity leave typically lasts two to three months, with some exceptions like Tunisia, where it lasts for at least 14 weeks, of which a period of six weeks’ compulsory leave should be after childbirth.
Leave is either fully or partially paid depending on the country, with South Africa notably offering unpaid leave.
Paternity leave is a newer concept in Africa, with the most generous allowance being 14 days, though if the local bill passes, Kenyans will have the longest paternity leave in Africa, at one month.
