On 30 March 2021, the President H.E. Uhuru Kenyatta signed into
law the Employment (Amendment) Act, 2021 (the Act). The Act was one
of 3 Employment (Amendment) Bills introduced in 20191,
and it is the only one that has currently been passed into law. The
Act came into force on 15 April 2021, following its gazettement
through Kenya Gazette Supplement No. 53 (Acts No. 2).
The Act amends the Employment Act, 2007 (the Employment Act) to
provide for pre-adoption leave. Section 29A has been introduced to
the Employment Act which provides that where a child is to be
placed in the continuous care and control of an applicant who is an
employee under the Employment Act, the employee shall be entitled
to 1 month's pre-adoptive leave with full pay. This varies from
the proposals made under the Employment (Amendment) Bill, 2019 (the
Bill), which proposed that a female married employee be entitled to
pre-adoption leave for a period of 3 months from the date of the
placement of the
