Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah on Tuesday, July 11, alleged that he turned down a Ksh200 million bribe offered to him to drop his petition challenging the implementation of the Finance Act, 2023.
The activist noted that he was offered the payout to withdraw a case he filed at the High Court barring President William Ruto's administration from implementing the controversial Act.
Addressing the People's Anti-Corruption Summit 2023, the senator, however, insisted that he turned it down because his only condition to leaders was to govern or vacate the office.
"We have to ensure that we abide by the law. They believe everyone has a price. Right now the money I have been offered to withdraw the petition has reached Ksh200 million.
"But I tell them, my price is one, if you can't govern vacate the office for those who can govern," he stated during the live-streamed event.
Omtatah further claimed that Kenyan taxpayers were shortchanged during the construction of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) alleging that no loan was procured for the project.
Instead, he argued that the Kenyan taxpayer forked out the entire Ksh900 billion the then Uhuru Kenyatta regime spent on the railway line.
"Contrary to what we have been told, SGR was fully funded by Kenyans to the tune of Ksh900 billion. SGR did not cost Ksh360 billion, and no money came from China. We want to know why we are “repaying” a loan for which no single cent came to Kenya," he alleged.
Court ruling on Finance Act Petition
Omtatah filed a suit towards the end of June challenging the constitutionality of the Act which has since been assented into Law by President William Ruto.
The High Court on Monday, June 10, extended the suspension of the Act's implementation and forwarded the file to Chief Justice Martha Koome to constitute a bench that will hear and determine the matter.
"The petitioners have proved that they have a prima facie case....there's merit in granting conservatory orders.
“Upon evaluation of the submissions, I have no difficulty finding that the petitioners have established a case with a probability of success," Justice Mugure Thande observed.
