Court to rule on transport case

By WILFRED AYAGA

Kenya: The High Court on Wednesday will rule on a new legal battle shaping up between Transport Cabinet Secretary Michael Kamau and public transport operators over contested regulations.

Kamau revoked the controversial National Transport and Safety Authority regulations on March 11, but he is accused of secretly publishing similar regulations under a new legal notice in a bid to circumvent a court case filed by public transport operators, The Standard has established.

The CS on Tuesday tabled documents in the National Assembly, which indicated that the controversial regulations in Legal Notice 219 were revoked on March 11.

This was three days before a High Court ruling on March 14 that ordered him to properly draft the regulations in consultations with transport stakeholders.

The ruling made by Justice George Odunga asked Kamau to consult with the transport operators and report back to the court within 60 days on an agreed version of the regulations.

He was also required to ensure that the agreed version was laid before the House within the same period.

“They will then avail to court within the same period evidence that the provisions of section 11 of the statutory instruments Act of 2012 were complied with,” said Justice Odunga in his ruling.

“Evidence that the same was laid before Parliament should also be provided to the court,” he added.

In their petition, the applicants, under the umbrella of Kenya Country Bus Owners’ Association had claimed that the decision to ban the movement of public vehicles at night was done in contravention of the provisions of the current Transport Licensing Board permits which allows the vehicles to operate both day and night.

Through lawyer Harrison Kinyanjui, the transporters told the court the ban had impacted negatively on economy and led to massive losses by transport operators.

Court records seen by The Standard, however, indicate that Kamau, while making his case before Justice Odunga did not inform the court that he had revoked the controversial regulations three days earlier.

This means the order asking him to consult the operators on the provisions of Legal Notice 219 and table an amended version before the National Assembly was made in the mistaken knowledge that the contested Legal Notice was still in force.