Kingi Disowns Letter he Wrote to Wetang’ula in his bid to Counter Omtatah

Sunday, July 2, 2023 –Senate Speaker Amason Kingi wants to petition the High Court over the evidence used to issue orders against the controversial Finance Bill in Court.

Speaker Kingi has come out to protest the orders issued to Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah who petitioned the court over the recently signed into law, Finance Bill 2023.

Kingi now argues that the evidence touching on the Senate as produced by Omtatah lacks basis since the letter the petitioner is claiming to have come from him(Speaker) had since been withdrawn and, therefore, cannot be used against the entire Bill.

Speaker Kingi noted that he communicated to his National Assembly counterpart withdrawing the said letter dated June 15, which had warned that the Finance Act 2023 would affect the county governments and needed to be discussed by both houses.

According to court documents seen on Sunday, July 2, Kingi maintained that the Act does not affect the county governments as alleged by Omtatah.

For that reason, Kingi argued that the court erred in issuing conservatory orders against the Finance Bill 2023, thus granting Omtatah’s prayers on barring President William Ruto from enforcing tax hikes.

“I do acknowledge that you indeed wrote to me with regard to the consideration of the Finance Bill 2023 vide your letter dated May 2, 2023. My letter dated June 15, 2023, was therefore sent in error, and I hereby withdraw it and repudiate its contents in its entirety.

“The position, therefore, remains as set out in my letter dated May 3, 2023, in which I was in agreement that pursuant to the provisions of Articles 95(4)(c), 114,109(3), 209(1) and 221(1) of the Constitution, the Finance Bill(National Assembly Bills No.14 of 2023) is a Bill considered only by the National Assembly, does not concern county governments and does not affect the operations of the Senate,” noted the submission in part.

In his petition that is seeing light of the day, Omtatah, argued that the National Assembly Speaker, Moses Wetang’ula, failed to consult his Senate counterpart before allowing the Finance Bill 2023 to be read and voted for by MPs.