The Supreme Court has dismissed a petition filed by Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah to stop the implementation of the Finance Act.
This is after the senator and three others had challenged the lifting of the High Court order that suspended the Finance Act, 2023, which paved the way for implementating the new law.
Omtatah had moved to the Supreme Court after the Court of Appeal lifted orders issued by High Court judge Mugure Thande in June suspending the implementation of the Finance Act 2023, to allow the hearing and determination of a case filed by the Busia senator to challenge the Act.
And in its ruling delivered on Friday, the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal by Omtatah on grounds that it had been filed out of time.
“The four sets of written submissions filed out of time by the applicants on August 15, 2023, on the court’s online platform are hereby struck out. The responses and/or submissions filed out of time by the 1st, 2nd, 3rd,4th, 5th, 8th and 9th respondents and are hereby struck out. and the applicant’s notice of motion dated August 5, 2023, is hereby dismissed,” the seven-judges bench said.
The petition was heard by Chief Justice Martha Koome, her deputy Philomena Mwilu and judges Mohamed Ibrahim, Smokin Wanjala, Njoki Ndungu, Isaac Lenaola and William Ouko.
The earlier ruling issued by the Court of Appeal followed an appeal filed by Treasury cabinet secretary Njuguna Ndung’u who argued that the suspension of the implementation of the Act had led to the loss of billions of shillings in revenue by the government.
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