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The High Court yesterday ruled to freeze the Finance Act 2023 from being enacted, dealing a major blow to the Kenya Kwanza Government.
Alongside this, the court has certified cases filed for hearing by more than three judges appointed by CJ Martha Koome. Justice Mugure Thande stated that she was not convinced by Attorney General, Justice Muturi, the Senate, the National Assembly and KRA to lift the suspension of the implementation of the new finance act 2023.
According to Mugure, two outcomes would come from finding the Finance Act unconstitutional; Ruto’s government would suffer many inconveniences and the people of Kenya would undergo suffering. She was of the view that Kenyans suffering would be a lesser evil and so she upheld the suspension placed on the Finance Act 2023.
She further stated that the petitioners had legitimate concerns about the constitutionality of the Finance Act. Okiya Omtatah, Peter Agoro, Dr Paul Saoke, Eliud Matindi and Clement Onyango are the petitioners who filed a case against the legitimacy of the Finance Act.
” Upon evaluation, I have no difficulty finding that there is a prima facie case and if the substratum of this case is not preserved, it will then render the case an academic exercise. The prejudice to be suffered by Kenyans outweigh the prejudice to be suffered by the government,” Justice Thande said.
After the ruling, the senior lawyer, Kiragu Kimani urged her to suspend the ruling for a period of seven to 10 days for his client to appeal. He claimed that the ripple effect of the said ruling would cripple the government.
Senior lawyer, Otiende Amollo however urged the judge to disregard their plea. According to him, the government had not shut down even after the Finance Act was suspended.
” Our colleagues should stop scaremongering. The law provides for mechanisms of continuity through the finance act 2022. All that has stopped are the new taxes and levies,” said Otiende
After hearing the arguments presented by the lawyers and the Busia Senator, Justice Mugure dismissed the new plea. She mentioned that Kenyans are likely to suffer if she lifts the orders for seven days.
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Justice Mugure further instructed that the case be placed before CJ Koome to empanel a three-judge bench to hear the case. That the matters raised in the case were of public importance and raised constitutional issues that needed an uneven bench to settle it.
According to the petitioners, led by Omtatah, the government sneaked in 22 clauses illegally in the Finance Act 2023. They argued that the state would not suffer any consequences for its suspension since the finance act 2022 is still in effect.
Those opposing the rule of suspension argued that there was no knowledge of how the government would spend the revenue collected from Kenyans. This would in turn mean that they would be taxing Kenyans illegally like EPRA’s implementation of the new fuel prices despite the finance act’s suspension.
Read Also: Court certifies Omtatah’s Case Challenging the Finance Bill as Urgent
