Government: December 27 and January 2 will be public holidays

Interior Cabinet Secretary Prof. Kithure Kindiki. [File, Standard]

Tuesday, December 27, 2022, and Monday, January 2, 2023, will be public holidays, The Standard can authoritatively report.

Christmas, December 25, falls on a Sunday, and Boxing Day, December 26, falls on a Monday.

When a public holiday falls on a Sunday, a non-working day, it is usually celebrated the following day, Monday, which is a working day.

However, December 26, Boxing Day which will falls on a Monday, would have "taken up" the slot for the "postponed" Christmas.

That means that the Christmas celebration, which would have fallen on a Monday, would be pushed to Tuesday, December 27.

Just like Christmas, January 1, 2023 will fall on a Sunday, occasioning its rescheduling to Monday, January 2, 2023.

A senior official at the Ministry of Interior told The Standard on Thursday, December 22, that owing to the calendar dynamics, Tuesday, December 27 and Monday, January 2, 2023 will be public holidays.

"I can confirm to you that December 27, 2022 and January 2, 2023 will be public holidays. This is by virtue of rescheduling the holidays due to calendar dynamics. Both Christmas and New Year fall on Sundays. And the Public Holidays Act says that when a public holiday falls on a Sunday, it is rescheduled to the following day. We have forwarded to the Government Printer the notice to gazette December 27, 2022 and January 2, 2023 as public holidays. The gazette notice should be out soon," said the senior Interior ministry official who requested anonymity.

Interior Cabinet Secretary (CS) Prof. Kithure Kindiki will be the undersigned in the gazette notice.

Section 4 of the Public Holidays Act says: "Where, in any year, a public holiday falls on a Sunday, then the first succeeding day, not being a public holiday, shall be a public holiday and the first-mentioned day shall cease to be a public holiday."

Section 3 of the Act gives the Interior minister powers to declare as a public holiday any day outside the originally-assigned public holidays.

"The minister may at any time if he thinks fit, by notice in the Gazette, declare any day to be a public holiday either in addition to the days mentioned in the Schedule or in substitution for any of those days," says Section 3 of the Public Holidays Act.

In April this year, Kenyans were treated to a five-day "weekend", when Friday, April 29, was declared a holiday to mourn Kenya's third President Mwai Kibaki; the subsequent Labour Day, May 1, fell on a Sunday, resulting in its rescheduling to Monday, May 2, which was already a public holiday to celebrate Idd-ul-Fitr, the end of Ramadhan.

Two public holidays - the rescheduled Labour Day and Idd-ul-Fitr - couldn't be celebrated simultaneously, resulting in the postponement of one - Labour Day - to the next day, Tuesday, May 3.

The adjusted holidays calendar earlier in the year meant that civil servants who left work on Thursday, April 28, returned to work on Wednesday, May 4.