Treasury CS Henry Rotich may have to answer to questions about the legality of the 2019/20 budgeting process after Nation established that he failed to comply with one of the regulations.
A ruling by Justice Winfrida Okwany on September 19, 2018, made it mandatory for the CS to present both the budget estimates and Finance Bill to the National Assembly.
However, when Rotich read the budget estimates in Parliament on Thursday, he did not present the Finance Bill.
The Bill grants the government legal force to collect taxes to finance its budget and must be enacted before the budget estimates are read.
Kitui Central MP Makali Mulu admitted to the local publication that the budget-making process failed to comply with the court ruling.
The court case had been filed by Okiya Omtata arguing that the government ‘cannot budget for what it does not have or has not collected’.
The 2019/20 budget was presented in Parliament amidst disorder and disapproval from Senators, female MPs and activists.
The senators had threatened to block the budget reading, citing that the National Assembly had reversed allocations to county governments ( Division of Revenue Bill).
Women Members of Parliament also stormed out of the Chambers minutes before the budget reading over the assault of their Wajir counterpart Fatuma Gedi.
The woman legislator had earlier on been allegedly attacked by the Wajir East MP Rashid Kassim after a heated argument.
She was in the company of her Homa Bay counterpart Gladys Wanga on their way to the protection house within the parliament.
Kenya Human Rights Commission, Transparency International, Africa Centre for Open Governance (Africog) and the Institute for Social Accountability (TISA) on Thursday filed the case in Nairobi, a few hours to Rotich’s speech in Parliament.
They argued that the Budget could not be tabled in the House before approval of the Division of Revenue Bill.
