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Public Holidays and Bank Holidays for Kenya

The list of Kenya bank holidays, national holidays and public holidays for 2008, comes from the Q++ Worldwide Public Holidays Database, the professional source of international public holidays long trusted by the world's foremost diary publishers. The information on this page is provided for private, non-professional, use. Qualified professionals can license data for 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and beyond. For details, please visit our licensing information page or

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04 Dec 2008 (Kenya Broadcasting Corporation-Nairobi) Kenya's Government Spokesman, Dr Alfred Mutua, has announced that last year's declaration of a public holiday for the Idd-Ul-Adhha Muslim festival was a one-off event and that this year's Idd-Ul-Adhha (expected on December 8, next Monday) would not be a public holiday. • 05 Nov 2008 (Associated Press-Kogelo, Kenya) The President of Kenya, Mwai Kibaki, has declared Thursday, November 6, 2008, as a one-off public holiday in Kenya to "celebrate the historic achievement by Senator Obama and our country". • 26 Sep 2008 (The Standard) Kenya's Government Spokesman, Alfred Mutua, has announced that the Government of Kenya had gazetted, Wednesday, October 1, 2008, as a public holiday to mark the Idd ul Fitr (End of Ramadan) Muslim festival. • 03 Jan 2008 (Reuters) Due to continued civil unrest and lack of transportation to get staff on premises, the banks and financial institutions of Kenya have declared today, Thursday, January 3, 2008, a bank holiday in Kenya. • 30 Dec 2007 (Reuters) Shortly after being sworn-in for a second term, President Mwai Kibaki declared tomorrow, Monday, December 31, 2007, as a one-off public holiday, "to accord all Kenyans the rest they deserved [after] the hectic time the country had during the electioneering period". • 20 Dec 2007 (Kenya Braodcasting Corporation) Government spokesperson, Alfred Mutua, announced that Friday, December 28, 2007, the day after the upcoming presidential election, would be a one-off public holiday in order for Kenyans to be able to travel, vote and return back to their workplace (by law, December 27, 2007, election day, is already gazetted as a public holiday). • 14 Dec 2007 (Kenya Broadcasting Corporation) The Government of Kenya has finally gazetted the new public holiday of Id-ul-Hajj on Wednesday, December 19, 2007. The government will be presenting an amendment to the Public Holiday Act to the next parliament so as to make it a permanent public holiday. • 06 Nov 2007 (Kenya Broadcasting Corporation) President Mwai Kibaki has directed that Idd-Ul-Hajj (also known as Eid al-Adha or Feast of Sacrifice) will henceforth be a public holiday and further instructed the Attorney-General, Mr Amos Wako, to make the necessary legal amendments to make it a national day. • 05 Nov 2007 (The Standard-Nairobi) Presidential candidate, Mr Raila Odinga, recently promised that he would make January 2 and 3, 2008, one-off public holidays if he is elected president in the upcoming December 27 elections. • 10 May 2007 (The Nation) Monday May 14, 2007, is not a public holiday, the Government clarified yesterday. • More News Updates For the full version of the summarized news items above, and older news items not displayed above, go to the Kenya public holidays news and updates page, or worldwide public holidays news and updates page, or subscribe to one of our free email newsletters.

Governing Law: Official public holidays in Kenya are regulated by Chapter 110 of the Laws of Kenya, the Public Holidays Act (An Act of Parliament to make provision for public holidays). • Weekend Public Holidays are covered by sections 3 & 4 of the Public Holidays Act. • Muslim holidays, only Eid al Fitr, and Id-Ul-Hajj since 2007, are official public holidays. Other Muslim festivals may be celebrated by the Muslim community but are not official public holidays. • Diwali: Section 2-3 of the Holidays Act specifies that persons of the Hindu faith are entitled to take Diwali as a paid public holiday. • Other Sources of Information For information not covered here, see the following specialized websites: Central Bank of Kenya (Kenya central bank), ASI Hot Spots (security-related world events: terrorist threats, political strife, strikes, criminal activity, aviation incidents and health outbreaks), CIA World Factbook (maps, demographic and economic statistics), Copp Clark (financial markets' trading hours, settlement holidays and currency non-clearing days), and the IFES Election Guide (information covering upcoming elections, referenda, electoral structures and past voter participation).

Observance : Any entry in the Observance column indicates that, in Kenya, the holiday may be regional or non-official or limited to certain religious and/or linguistic groups, or begin at a time other than midnight. Note that religious holidays are included only if they are national public holidays, or if the national labour code has specific holiday allowances for employees of specific religions. For more information, see our pages on the religious calendars of the world.

Religious Holidays : Public holidays in Kenya that are based on certain religious calendars may be subject to local variations due to differing interpretations between different religious authorities, or to seemingly arbitrary changes in the date a holiday is celebrated because it conflicts with another holiday that is based on another calendar, or because the day of the holiday is deemed inauspicious (bad luck). To find out more about these uncertainties, see the footnote below, if any, for each specific religion.

Muslim Holidays : Muslim bank holidays, legal holidays and public holidays for Kenya were evaluated using the Umm al-Qura Calendar of Saudi Arabia which is used in Saudi Arabia and in most of the Persian Gulf States. Holidays may occur a day later in countries outside the Gulf region. The sunrises, sunsets, moon phases, moonrises and moonsets used in these calculations are based on the location of Mecca (latitude 21.42°N, longitude, 39.82°E, GMT+3 hours, no summer time rules). For more details on Muslim holidays, see Muslim Calendar Holidays. For Salat (prayer times) calculations, see our Freeware page.

Disclaimer
In many parts of the world, holidays are subject to arbitrary, last minute, changes by local authorities. While every effort has been made to present an accurate list of 2008 bank holidays, legal holidays and public holidays for Kenya, we cannot accept any responsibility for any error or omission in the data presented above. You are therefore advised to verify the above dates with the embassy or consulate of Kenya, before planning any trip to Kenya. For last-minute updates to worldwide public holidays, visit our blog or subscribe to our free email newsletters.