BY SAM ALFAN.
Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah wants Speaker of Senate Amason Kingi summoned to court for cross-examination over an affidavit concerning Finance Act, 2023.
Omtatah says in application that an affidavit by Kingi has contradictions and improbabilities, making his averments that are wholly untruthful, unsubstantiated and inconclusive.
“The veracity of the affidavit is questionable. The affidavit makes allegations on matters of pure conjecture and imagination,” says Omtatah.
According to the senator, court will rely on the affidavit whose veracity has not been tested.
“I intend to cross-examine Speaker Kingi, the speaker of the Senate, to expose the errors, falsehoods, contradictions and improbabilities in his affidavit sworn on 1st July 2023 and the cross examination of the evidence of 2nd Interested party is absolutely necessary for the proper decision of the petition at hand,” says Omtatah.
Kingi states in his affidavit that on June 21, 2023, he retracted his protest letter to his National Assembly counterpart Justin Muturi dated June 15th, 2023.
The Senate Speaker says he had drawn and issued the earlier protest letter in error, since they had already reached an agreement with the Speaker of the National Assembly on May 3rd, stating that the Bill did not concern county governments.
“It is in the interests of justice, including upholding the principles of fair hearing, that this Honourable Court orders the cross-examination of the Rt. Amason Jeffah Kingi,” Omtatah told the court
Omtatah argued that the initial communication and the purported subsequent repudiation raises questions about how the Senate and the National Assembly, as institutions, consult to determine matters concerning concurrence as required by Article 110(3) of the constitution of Kenya 2010. Specifically, it raises a question as to whether it is secretive and solely at the discretion of the two Speakers and at what point it is considered that the two Houses have concurred.
“The repudiated letter references a report from the Senate Departmental Committee on Delegated Legislation, which confirmed that the Finance Bill 2023 included matters concerning counties. The repudiation does not invalidate the report, suggesting that the report is a separate supporting exhibit not connected to the deponent’s repudiated letter,” says Busia Senator.
It is Omtatah arguments that the contents of the protest letter of the Speaker of the Senate are not disputed rather he disputes, in a very lame way, the manner in which his letter dated 15th June 2023 was obtained, yet it goes without saying that Okiya Omtatah, is his boss, being a Senator of Busia.
“The purported repudiation of the letter does not negate the constitutional requirement for concurrence by the two Houses of Parliament on Bills, including whether they affect counties and their governments,” says Omtatah.
