Acting Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani will be forced to go to drawing board following the protest by MPs over his recent budget cuts targeting the judiciary.
Operations in the third arm of government have been paralysed for the better part of this week, with courts suspending sittings due to budget cuts.
Treasury had slashed Judiciary's budget from Sh14.5 billion to Sh11.5 billion in the pretext of cutting costs within the national goverment.
Majority Leader Aden Duale slammed Mr Yatani, insisting that he has no powers to issue memos without approval of parliament. He asked him to prepare supplementary budget.
“From where I sit, and knowing the powers given to this House, this is not a serious matter. We cannot be discussing the CS’s memo. This House has its constitutional powers to budget and appropriate resources. In the event that the projection the minister gave is not achievable, he can only come to this House with a Supplementary Budget,” said Majority Leader Aden Duale.
Homa Bay MP Peter Kaluma had demanded that Speaker Justin Muturi give direction on whether the National Assembly had acted in vain as the budgeting authority by allocating the funds to Judiciary only for the CS to slash the monies through a memo.
“Parliament does not act in vain and its constitutional mandate should be respected. The minister should come here with Supplementary Budget if he wants any allocation altered. It is not about Judiciary only, but any area where this House has allocated funds,” Mr Kaluma said.
High Court suspended Judiciary budget cuts on Tuesday following outcry from sections of lawyers and members of the public who suspected witch-hunt.
Appeals Court sittings have been suspended across the country with Judges also failing to turn up for crucial cases in different parts of the country due to Treasury's budget cuts.