Omtatah moves to court to stop Parliament from amending Constitution
Activist Okiya Omtatah Okoiti has moved to court in a bid to stop the National Assembly from instituting changes to the country’s constitution through a parliamentary initiative.
In a petition certified as extremely urgent, Omtatah wants the High Court to issue a temporary order of prohibition barring the Speaker of the National Assembly from referring to an Amendment Bill sponsored by Ndaragwa MP Jeremiah Kioni, who also chairs the Constitutional Implementation Oversight Committee in the National Assembly.
Kioni’s Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) Bill (National Assembly Bill No. 40 of 2020) contains clauses that seek to amend the Constitution to allow members of parliament and County Assemblies to be appointed as Cabinet Ministers and County Executive Committee Members by the President and Governors respectively.
According to Omtatah, such a move will remove the clear distinction and the separation of powers between the Legislature and the Executive at the national and county levels of government.
“The above amendments which propose to fuse the Legislature and the Executive at the two levels of government interfere with the basic structure of Kenya’s Presidential system and, consequently, the changes can only be approved through a referendum,” Omtatah says in his petition.
The famous activist further argues that the Bill which has undergone First Reading, seeks to ensure that ‘the President may assign the Attorney-General the duties of a Cabinet Secretary,’
In the petition, Omtatah wonders why the National Assembly chose to proceed with the consideration of the Bill ‘without providing for a referendum’ pursuant to Article 255(1)(h) and (i) ‘which requires that any amendments affecting the functions of Parliament and the objects, principles and structure of devolved government must be approved through a national referendum,’
“The statement in the Bill’s Memorandum of Objects and Reasons that, “The enactment of this Bill shall not occasion additional expenditure of public funds,” makes it crystal clear that the National Assembly seeks to enact the Bill without approval through a national referendum.” He says
Omtatah wants the speaker prevented from referring the passed version of Kioni’s Bill to the President for assent into law.
The Bill has been viewed by many as seeking to implement of some of the changes proposed in the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) through parliament. The BBI process has so far been stopped by the High Court and is currently in the Court of Appeal, which is expected to deliver its judgment on the matter later this month.
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