Waititu Eats the Humble Pie As Court Blocks His Billions

Image result for ferdinand waititu

Kiambu Governor Ferdinand Waititu suffered a major blow after the High Court yesterday stopped him from implementing the Sh16.5 billion supplementary budget for 2018/19.

Justice James Makau ruled that the County Assembly abdicated its duties by failing to procedurally deal with the budget estimates before approving them.

“An order is hereby issued prohibiting the respondents from implementing Kiambu budget Appropriation bill No. 3 of 2019. Accordingly, I allow the petition and order the county government and the controller of budget to pay the costs,” he said Makau.

The orders were issued after 10 Members of the County Assembly (MCAs) filed a constitutional petition challenging the supplementary budget. The MCAs, through lawyers James Mamboleo and Titus Ochichi, had informed the court that Waititu had signed into law the controversial bill and was in the process of acquiring funds from the National Treasury.

“The relevant committee in Finance, Budget and Appropriation Committee of the County Assembly were not involved and that the Bill was not moved as stipulated in the Standing Orders,” the court documents read.

Related image

The lawyers said the County Assembly, while passing the Appropriation Bill, did not follow the Assembly rules and procedures, saying that some of the petitioners, Stanley Kiarie, Peter Karuga, John Ngure, Samuel Kimani were not consulted.

They further argued that the process of presenting, tabling and moving motions dealing with Budget, Finance and Appropriation Bill is the sole mandate of the relevant committee of the County Assembly which in this case was not involved.

According to the MCAs, the Procedure and Rules Committee met privately on March 19 and split the Finance, Budget and Appropriation Committee into two, the Finance and Economic Committee and Budget Appropriation Committee, an act they claim is illegal.

The lawyers also said that on March 21, an ad-hoc committee was created illegally and contrary to the Standing Orders purposely to pass the supplementary Appropriation Bill No.3, saying the move was meant to kick out the relevant committee which had refused to pass the Bill.

“Article 2 (3) of the County Governments Act provides that a money Bill the County Assembly passes may proceed only in accordance with the recommendations of the relevant committee of the County Assembly and getting views of County Executive Committee members responsible for Finance,” petitioners said.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *