Okiya Omtatah amends Finance Bill petition, wants court to quash some sections

In the amended petition the senator has added the speaker of the National Assembly, Commissioner General –KRA , Senate , Consumer Federation of Kenya (COFEK )Kenya Export Floriculture Allied Workers Union as interested parties.

In the amended petition, Omtatah says that the Finance Bill contains amendments to several laws that have nothing to do with raising revenue, and laws that affect the work of the Senate to protect the interests of counties and their governments. 

“Forcing employees to contribute an amount of money based on the applicable blanket deductible percentage without consideration of their existing contractual obligations on their salaries is not reasonable,” says Omtatah. 

He further argues it is a mandatory condition precedent that, before the Bill can be introduced for consideration in the originating House, a Speaker of one House of Parliament must first seek the concurrence of the Speaker of the other House of Parliament.

“In direct contravention of the mandatory requirement that any Bill introduced in the National Assembly, which includes provisions pertaining to county governments, must also be introduced to the Senate for concurrence, the Finance Bill 2023 was not submitted to the Senate,” he states. 

He now wants the court to quash some Sections of the Original Finance Bill 2023 which did not get input from the Senate adding that the Speaker of the National Assembly violated Article 110(3) of the Constitution by introducing the Finance Bill 2023 in the National Assembly without first determining, jointly with the Speaker of the Senate, whether the Bill concerned county government. 

The humanitarian had filed his first petition against the Finance Bill on June 2, arguing that some of its sections threaten the right to property, access to justice and violate the Constitution in general.

The Finance Bill has since been assented into law by President William Ruto.