Kenya National Civil Society Centre wants EPRA cited for contempt of court!
-EPRA has since sought to explain its reasons for the upward review of pump
prices saying they were not a party to the suit-
Suba Churchill-Executive Director Kenya National Civil Society Centre/Image Courtesy
The Kenya National Civil Society Centre (KNCSC) has called on the Senator for Busia
County Hon. Okiya Omtatah and his fellow litigants in the case challenging the
legality and constitutionality of the Finance Act, 2023/24 to move to the High Court
with speed and cite the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) for
contempt after the State regulator went ahead to increase the retail price of
petroleum fuel products on account of the Finance Act, 2023 even after the Court
had placed a break on implementation of the law.
On the same vane, KNCSC calls on Kenyans who have bought fuel at the reviewed
higher prices to demand and insist on being issued with a receipt to facilitate claims
of refunds that may accrue should the court find, as it should, that EPRA acted with
impunity and in contempt of court by raising fuel prices in total disregard of orders of
the High Court.
EPRA has since sought to explain its reasons for the upward review of pump
prices saying they were not a party to the suit and have not been served with
the court order”.
“The Kenya National Civil Society Centre finds it phony, bogus, sham and insensitive
that a State regulator in charge of a sensitive docket as EPRA can still muster the
audacity to claim that it acted in contempt of Court because “we had not been
served with the Court order” in a matter that is of such great public interest and on
which the High Court pronouncement and order putting its implementation on hold
reverberated across the country like a tsunami.” Said KNCSC
With Parliament, Constitutional Commissions and other independent offices
apparently compromised by the Executive beyond any hopes of redemption,
Kenyans nonetheless have some hope in the Judiciary as the last arm of government
still capable of standing against the seemingly unending excesses of the
Executive.
The Kenya National Civil Society Centre has urged Kenyans to support
calls for civil disobedience by the opposition especially in light of the casual manner
in which orders of the courts are also being dismissed and treated with the kind of
contempt being displayed by the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA)
in particular, and the government in general.
“Ever since the Kenyan Kwanza administration was sworn into office on 13
September, 2022, acts of impunity perpetrated by the regime have been the rule
rather than the exception as it pledged during the campaigns ahead of the 9 August,
2022 General Elections”.
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