The Ruto government does not understand the magnitude of what they are doing with the Kenyan courts for the first time outlining what public participation in the government running the country means in practice.
“The High ordered that the National Assembly organize public hearings closer to the citizens at least at constituency level on each constituency in Kenya to enable the constituents of Members of Parliament responsible for the impeachment process nationally to engage with and participate on hearings and/or any other suitable modes by which citizens at that level can participate and offer their representations…” stated the notice.
That is now the law of the land and it is going to have a devastating impact on how President Ruto runs the country going forward and that is great news for Kenyans.
According to the 2010 Kenya constitution, public participation is required before any laws and decisions that are made in parliament that affects the governance of the country.
For all the 14 years since that became the law of the land there is not one single time any Kenyan president or parliament has organized any public participation before making their rules. In other words Kenya has been run illegally by our governments for all those years. That is coming to an end thanks to President Ruto’s decision to impeach his DP Rigathi Gachagua.
Can any Kenyan imagine the Ruto government taking their Finance Bill 24/25 for public participation in June this year before they tried to sneak it through? Well, that is now a legal requirement and the next Finance Bill which William Ruto needs desperately will have to be taken to every constituency for public participation.
MPs are going to go into hiding the moment the next Finance Bill is set up and they have to take it to their constituents to approve it.
It will also mean that the new CS for The Treasury John Mbadi will have no choice but to put together a Finance Bill which Kenyans will support and probably means some big things have to be done to reduce VAT so Kenyans can accept the next bill. I saw those who produce and market school books for Kenyans asking the government to remove all VAT on books. That should be done. And remove VAT on food products including cooking oil. The list goes on and if that is done Kenyans may look at the next Finance Bill and accept it but it is going to a tough job.
Right now the Kenya government has no legal Finance Bill. Their last hope of returning to the Finance Bill of 2023 was ruined when the Kenya Court of Appeal ruled that Bill is unconstitutional because of lack of public participation.
Ruto appealed that ruling to the Supreme Court but he knows he will not win that but wanted to buy time to use the old budget but they have to pass a new budget within the next one month or so and this time it is coming for public participation in every constituency because that is what public participation means according the court ruling.
There is nothing that scares President William Ruto more than this public participation court ruling. Right now Ruto desperately wishes this Gachagua impeachment thing never happened at all. Too late.
The Privatization Act which was meant to help the Ruto regime grab JICC and other huge public assets has also been declared illegal and JICC is safe now and on that the Ruto government did not even bother to appeal to the Supreme Court. They know that egg is cooked and gone.
Kenyan High Court Rules Privatization Law Is Unconstitutional
September 24, 2024
Kenyan high court ruled that the nation’s privatization law is unconstitutional, the latest setback for the East African government that’s hard-pressed to diversify funding sources.
The Privatization Act passed almost a year ago didn’t undergo “meaningful” public participation during its development and sidesteps oversight by the National Assembly by providing that a transaction can come into effect if lawmakers fail to give their approval within 90 days, Judge Chacha Mwita said.
Mwita also ruled that the planned disposal of a stake in an iconic convention center in the middle of the capital city, Nairobi, violates cultural rights because the building is a national heritage.
The judgment comes on the heels of another appeals-court decision in July that said a tax law introduced last year also breached the constitution, potentially denying President William Ruto’s government even more revenue.
The privatization law was meant to accelerate the process of divesting from some state-owned companies and is part of reforms in a $3.6 billion International Monetary Fund financing package aimed at reducing Kenya’s over-reliance on borrowing.
The country intended to partly dispose off Kenya Pipeline Co., National Oil Corp. of Kenya, and New Kenya Co-operative Creameries Ltd., which are fully state-owned. It also planned to reduce shareholdings in listed firms including Standard Bank Group Ltd.’s local unit, East African Portland Cement Co., Nairobi Securities Exchange Plc, HF Group Plc, Eveready East Africa Ltd. and Liberty Kenya Holdings Ltd.
Then the mother of all William Ruto scandals of trying to sell JKIA and other premium national assets to some dubious company in India called the Adani Group and now that has to go for public participation and it is in court already which stopped the whole process.
Even Ruto himself will never dare go to Kenyans to try and sell that big scam of handing over the country to a foreign company in India. The best thing for Ruto to do here is to talk to the Adani money bags privately and tell them the deal is dead and figure out how to pay them whatever money they paid to our corrupt politicians as bribes to get that deal.
Adani Airport Holdings Limited, an Indian company owned by Gautam Adani, seeks a $1.85 billion (Ksh242 billion) investment deal with the Kenyan government to expand Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA).
The high court ruling o the Gachagua Impeachment case has defined clearly what public participation must involve under the 2010 Kenyan constitution and that is the way it is going to be for the country going forward. Members of the public may submit their views relating to the Special Motions to respective Constituency/County Women Representative Offices for onward transmission to the Office of the Clerk of the National Assembly.
“It is notified to the general public that further to the public participation exercise which commenced on October 2, 2024, and the collection of views across the Venues and Constituency/County Women Representative Offices on October 4, 2024, the 290 Constituency Offices and 47 County Women Representative Offices of all Members of the National Assembly, which are offices under the Parliamentary Service Commission, shall remain open on Saturday, October 5, 2024 from 8.00 am to 5.00 pm to facilitate further public participation on the Special Motion,” a notice by the Clerk of the National Assembly Samuel Njoroge stated.
The exercise was first held Friday in 47 centers across all counties.
But a court order secured from a Kerugoya High Court on Friday directed Parliament to organize public participation in every constituency across the country.
While making the ruling, Justice Richard Mwongo said the public hearing scheduled for today (October 4) may proceed as a first stage but the respondents in the case to organize similar public hearings for citizens at least at the constituency level.
This, he said, will enable the constituents of members of parliament responsible for the impeachment process nationally to engage with and participate in hearings by which citizens at that level can participate and offer their representations.
The Judge in issuing the order made reference to Supreme Court decisions that have been the guiding principle when it comes to meaningful public participation.
This followed a petition filed by Kirinyaga Woman Representative Jane Njeri Maina which was certified as urgent.
The National Assembly only organized public participation in 47 centres in all counties within one day, October 4, 2024.
There are endless cases now in our courts where Kenyans are filing petitions to stop illegal and unconstitutional actions by the William Ruto government. As it is is the government is losing every case.
One case that is going to require careful attention in the NG-CDF rulings by the Kenyan courts. On August 8, 2022 the Supreme Court of Kenya declared ND-CDF illegal because it gave the MPs the rights to use the money. That Supreme Court ruling has been trashed by the Ruto government which keeps giving the MPs the money and the Supreme Court can go to hell.
Now in a ruling on September 20, 2024, the High Court on ruled that the CDF kitty was unconstitutional after making a determination on nine issues following a petition filed by activist Wanjiru Gikonyo after the old CDF Act was declared unconstitutional.
The ruling was made by a three-judge bench, made up of Justices Kanyi Kimondo, Roselyne Aburili, and Mugure Thande.
Here is the problem. These three judges are saying using the CDF by MPs is illegal but they are telling the MPs they can continue committing that crime of grabbing CDF money for two years then it will be stopped on June 30, 2026. That is how screwed our courts are a lot of times.
The shocking thing here is that the Kenyan Supreme Court already ruled on the issue and in which part of the world does a High Court make a ruling dismissing a Supreme Court ruling? In Kenya of course. We are going to need another case in the court of appeals to ask if Supreme Court rulings in Kenya can be dismissed by juniour courts. That never happens anywhere else in the world.
NG CDF is another issue that will go to public participation so Kenyans can determine how they want the CDF money used to benefit the citizens and not the politicians.
Supreme Court finds CDF Act illegal
The Supreme Court has declared the Constituency Development Fund illegal and unconstitutional.
This brings to the end a nine-year court battle between the Members of Parliament and civil society groups.
In its verdict this morning, the country’s highest court found that the law allowing MPs to manage funds offends division of revenue and public finance law.
“A declaration is hereby made that the Constituency Development Fund Act, 2013 is unconstitutional,” the verdict given by the five-judge bench read in part.
“We agree with the reasoning adopted by the High Court to the effect that the CDF Act 2013 violates the principle of separation of powers and that the CDF Act 2013 is unconstitutional. We also agree with the reasoning of the Court of Appeal, but only to the extent that it upholds the position of the High Court,”
The case was heard and determined by Chief Justice Martha Koome, DCJ Philomena Mwilu, lady justice Njoki Ndung’u, Justice Ouko and Justice Wanjala.
The case had been filed at the High Court in 2013, but it later escalated to the Supreme Court after the Court of Appeal overturned the High Court’s finding.
The matter pitted two civil society groups, Institute for Social Accountability (Tisa) and the Centre for Enhancing Democracy and Good governance, against the lawmakers.
I saw a story on Kenyan media today of an MP who pays employees in his CDF office through M-Pesa and he was mad when that was revealed. Why was he mad? Because MPs using M-Pesa to distribute CDF money means there is no record of anything and most of that M-Pesa payment is going to their own personal accounts.
In reality NG-CDF is money Kenyan taxpayers give for free to the MPs. They say they pay school fees for kids but there is absolutely no record of that anywhere. Kenyan MPs don’t need salaries because the CDF is their personal money. It is their M-Pesa money from Kenyan taxpayers.
The public participation in the DP Gachagua debate is full chaos and as a matter of fact it is public war and not public participation but William Ruto will push this Gachagua impeachment through because even if Gachagua is not impeached he is done and will not work with Ruto as his boss. He can sit in his office and get paid and that is all he can do now.
The real deal is that a process of public participation in Kenyan legislation and governance has now been put clear and it is to take everything to the constituencies and let Kenyans give their opinions. That is great progress for the country. Thank you Gachagua at least for this.
The bottom line is that Ruto can get his Gachagua back and they can call Mt. Kenya for Mchele na Nyama at State House but the public participation regulations are now in place. Kenya is ready to move on with or without Ruto and Gachagua.
In fact, in the whole country Kenyans are calling for both of them to be thrown out of office. They are asking for it and that is what they are going to get. Time up and they had a chance and are running the country into complete chaos. Kenyans will not accept anything like that.
Kenya has problems in higher education funding which is headed to court. There is a nightmare in health funding from NHIF where the government just transferred Kenyans to a new program SHA without even getting their individual permission to do so. That is in the courts too. William Ruto just doesn’t know what he is doing as the Kenyan president.
He is lost in the wilderness. He never thought running a government could be so tough. Following Moi and Uhuru was the easy part because you just steal money and you are fine. Running the country is a totally different ball game and William Ruto is lost. Nothing can save him.
For the first time, Kenyans are going to know and see how powerful their 2010 Constitution which was actually opposed by Ruto at the time it was passed really is. There has to be public participation on everything for the country. That is not a joke and Kenyans should be very proud of the constitution they passed to get rid of the Moi dictatorship. It is going to work now and it is still a war.
‘Kufa dereva, kufa makanga!’ Section of Kenyans demand both Ruto and Gachagua be impeached
It is unimaginable to think that Ruto and Gachagua are bringing each other down and the whole country is laughing at them. Let them keep going at it. Kenyans are sick of them.
‘No Gachagua, No Ruto’ chants in Nakuru as residents oppose impeachment
Public participation in Gachagua impeachment cut short at Nakuru ASK grounds after exercise turned chaotic.
Public participation in the impeachment process of Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua was halted at the Nakuru ASK Grounds after the proceedings descended into chaos.
Nyandarua dances to Kikuyu Liberation Songs during Public Participation on Deputy President DP Rigathi Gachagua’s Impeachment.
Adongo Ogony is a Human Rights Activist and a Writer who lives in Toronto, Canada
