Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah has moved to court seeking to stop the ongoing public participation on the Finance Bill 2024.
According to Omtatah and Dr. Benjamin Magare, the National Assembly has tabled the Finance Bill 2024 prematurely before parliament considers and approves the Financial Year 2024/2025 budget estimates.
They argue that it is unlawful and unconstitutional that the Finance Bill 2024 is based on the FY 2024/2025 budget estimates of revenue which were submitted to the National Assembly on April 30, 2024, by the CS.
They now want the court to certify the matter as urgent, arguing that there is no remedy if the court does not intervene.
“The petitioners are aggrieved that, contrary to the procedure laid out in the constitution, the National Assembly is considering the Finance Bill 2024 before it considers and approves the Appropriations Act, 2024,” reads the court papers.
They say that it violated the provisions in Section 39 (4)(a) of the Public Finance Management Act, which requires the National Assembly to ensure that the total amount of revenue raised is consistent with the approved fiscal framework.
They argue that they suspect that the National Assembly’s decision to enact the Finance Act 2024 before it enacts the Appropriations Act 2024 is a bold-faced fraud scheme and budgeted corruption to scam Kenyan taxpayers by collecting unbudgeted revenue to finance unbudgeted expenditure.
