Indefatigable Okiya Omtatah in Court Again to Stop Finance Act Despite Supreme Court Setback

• Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah passionately challenges President William Ruto’s Finance Act, pointing out procedural flaws.
• Omtatah challenged the legality of the Finance Act 2023, arguing that it was passed in violation of the Constitution
• He argued for the Act’s nullification, highlighting its unfairness in imposing blanket policies on individuals without considering contractual technicalities

Nairobi – Busia senator Okiya Omtatah has put up a spirited fight against President William Ruto’s Finance Act.

Justices David Majanja, Lawrence Mugambi and Christine Meori were overseeing the case challenging the Finance Act 2023.

Omtatah began his submissions by pointing out loopholes in the bill’s filing and why it failed to follow the proper procedure.

Loopholes in the Finance Act

According to the human rights defender, the Finance Act 2023 failed to show revenue estimates and budget bills produced.

“The finance act cannot survive the infringements that preceded its introduction into parliament and that accompanied it in the process of being enacted so we pray that you void the finance act, the appropriation act and the estimates in it’s entirety for violating the constitution,” Omtatah explained.

The vocal lawmaker explained that applying a blanket policy on people was unfair without considering contractual technicalities.

“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,” he said.

Why Finance Act should be nullified

He also complained that the bill did not pass through both Houses as stipulated in the constitution and contravened the basics of introducing a bill to Parliament.

“In direct contravention of the 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 said.

Other petitioners said the Finance Act and the appropriation are interdependent only in that the former provides for the generation of the funds, and the latter provides for the expenditure.

Source: TUKO.co.ke