Re-known activist Okiya Omtatah has gone to court to sue the state seeking to suspend the 16 per cent tax imposed on fuel and other petroleum products.
In his application that he filed on Monday, said that the decision to impose the new levy has negative impact on public and should be suspended pending determination of his case.
Omtatah avers that the decision by state violates the Constitution because “it has an effect of limiting rights to property and advancement of socio-economic rights.”
He observed that Treasury CS Henry Rotich allowed the implementation of the new levy in total defiance to Parliament which suspended the same.
The Treasury Cabinet Secretary, Kenya Revenue Authrority, Energy Regulatory Commission, and the Attorney General are the respondents.
Rotich enacted the new tax measures effective September 1 and of which ERC followed by adjusting fuel prices to factor in the tax.
The decision has sparked protests from various quarters with calls to President Uhuru Kenyatta to assent to the Finance Bill, 2018 which suspends the levies.
The tax was factored in the Finance Act, 2013, before the same was stayed for another 3 years and later in 2016 for another 2 years which elapsed last month.
The implementation of fuel was enacted on Saturday 1st September after he directed the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).