The government has in recent weeks been drawn into a fierce court battle over the implementation of the Finance Act 2023, and the collection of new taxes.
In the front line of the battle, which has seen a judge issue orders suspending the new law, is perhaps Kenya’s most recognised face in public interest litigation, Okiya Omtatah.
Mr Omtatah perhaps holds the record for the largest number of public interest cases filed by a non-lawyer.
He was elected as the Senator of Busia during the August 2022 General Election, raising his profile from a career activist to a lawmaker.
Contrary to the norm where many activists become political elite turncoats once elected into office, Mr Omtatah has remained true to his beliefs.
His quest for a just society continues in spite of his elevation into public office, even as he draws praise and rebuke in near equal measure.
Some see him as a hero while to others he is a villain and a gun for hire.
He is to many perhaps the last line of defence against the persons or institutions seeking to contravene the law of the land as well as the proverbial cat among the pigeons having been elected into office.
Were his recent challenge against the implementation of the Finance Act 2023 a best-of-seven series, Mr Omtatah would have a nearly unassailable two-nil score and perhaps look to sweep the remainder of the series.
On July 10, Justice Mugure Thande handed the Senator yet another win after declining an order stopping the implementation of the Act.
The High Court subsequently asked Chief Justice Martha Koome to constitute a bench to hear and determine the case.
This was despite the Treasury and Attorney-General Justin Muturi arguing that the order had the effect of shutting down government operations.
Mr Omtatah has also cited the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority Director-General Daniel Kiptoo for contempt for disobeying a court order suspending the Act’s implementation.
The standard rating of VAT on petroleum products at 16 percent from the previous eight percent has been at the centre of the Senator’s protests.
“Unless the application is urgently heard and determined, the people of Kenya will suffer great loss and damage as the impugned excise duties will continue to be imposed on Kenyans,” the Senator noted in his petition.
Mr Omtatah reckoned the rise in the prices of petroleum products would have ripple effects in the high cost of essential products and the right to live a humanly dignified life.
Further, he warned the high cost of production resulting from the high fuel costs would lead to deindustrialisation on investor flight.
Beyond blocking the implementation of the 2023 Finance Act, Mr Omtatah recently sought to stop the recruitment of the chairperson and members of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).
He argued the Senate passed the IEBC (Amendment) Act No. 1 of 2023 without considering the report of the standing committee on justice, legal affairs and human rights.
The amendment had changed the composition of the selection committee that oversees the recruitment of IEBC commissioners.
Other prayers sought by the Senator have included the audit of the public register in which he raises the alarm on odious debt- incurred without parliamentary approval and that has benefited private entities.
“Kenyans are being asked to pay those debts which financed non-existent development projects,” he noted.
On July 4, Mr Omtatah was in the backdrop of a landmark ruling which declared the creation of 50 Chief Administrative Secretary positions unconstitutional.
In yet another petition, Mr Omtatah questioned the legality of procurement in the standard gauge railway (SGR) project.
He lost the case in which he was adamant that the project did not meet the criteria of a public project and that there was no evidence showing Kenyans approved the project through public participation.
“It is a project schemed by China Road and Bridges Corporation, which entirely benefited the Chinese at the expense of Kenyans and is representative of many other projects of similar nature schemed by foreign companies and embraced by gullible Kenyan public trustees,” he noted in a petition to the Senate.
In another life, Mr Omtatah would have been a Catholic priest. As a young man, he went through seminary but ill health made him abandon that career path.
