The National Assembly undertook an effective and constitutionally compliant public participation on the Affordable Housing Bill, 2023, the High Court has ruled.
This verdict was delivered by Justice Mwanaisha Saida Shariff sitting at the High Court in Kisumu, in a petition where one Mr. Lawrence Omule Apiyo had sued the National Assembly
alongside the Office of the Attorney General and the Cabinet Secretary for Lands, Public Works, Housing and Urban Settlement regarding public participation on the Bill.
In her ruling, Justice Mwanaisha noted that the National Assembly had adduced sufficient evidence to prove that there had been public participation beyond the submission of written memoranda on the Bill.
The Petitioner had accused the National Assembly of restricting public participation on the Affordable Housing Bill, 2023 (National Assembly Bill No. 75 of 2023) to only submission of memoranda, which he argued was not inclusive.
“This court takes judicial notice of the fact that public hearings and consultations with stakeholders and experts concluded on 30th January 2024, and the Affordable Housing Bill has already undergone a second reading before the 3rd Respondent (National Assembly), with a vote being taken in favour,” ruled Justice Mwanaisha.
Mr. Apiyo had filed the petition on 15th December 2023; less than a week after the Clerk of the National Assembly, Mr. Samuel Njoroge put out a notice inviting Members of the Public to submit written memoranda on the Bill, which had been committed by the House to the Departmental Committee on Housing, Urban Planning and Public Works as well as that on Finance.
During the hearing of the petition, the National Assembly told the Court that submission of memoranda was just one of the methods that were to be employed in undertaking public participation.
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