Uproar as MPs discover RUTO has also increased the cost of water for domestic use by 1,000% with impunity – LOOK!

Friday, May 26, 2023 – A session between Senate Committee on Delegated Legislation and Cabinet Secretary for Water, Sanitation, and Irrigation Alice Wahome ended prematurely after senators discovered that she had increased the cost of water by 1,000% without any public participation.

What angered the Senators is that she did the increment all by herself without considering the view that lobby groups and ordinary water users in the country had presented.

In legal Notice number 170 of 2021, President William Ruto’s government had gazetted regulations developed by the Water Resources Authority (WRA) and the State Department of Water, increasing water use rates by 1,000 per cent for Domestic, Public water supply and Livestock watering and a 320 per cent increment on irrigation water. 

Agriculture Sector Networks (ASNET) had asked the Senate Committee on Delegated Legislation and Cabinet Secretary for Water to take measures to ensure that the implementation of the regulations was immediately stopped.

ASNET claimed that the regulations were offensive provisions that ought to be withdrawn, and subjected to new legal and public scrutiny.

However, CS Wahome rejected the pleas by the Agriculture Sector Networks, noting that the contents of the Petition form part of three matters pending before the court and whose judgment was due in three weeks.

According to Wahome, entertaining such discussions would amount to contempt of court since the matter was still active before a judge. 

CS Wahome, therefore, implored the Senators to call off the session until such a time when the matter shall have been heard and determined by the court.

In response, Senator Mwenda Gataya Mo Fire, who chairs the committee, agreed with the Water Cabinet Secretary and adjourned the session.

However, Senato Mo fire warned CS Wahome that implementing the regulations without senatorial approval would create legal complications for the Kenya Kwanza government.

The Kenyan DAILY POST