High Court blocks government from raising road maintenance levy

The High Court has blocked the government from increasing the road maintenance levy, pending the hearing and determination of a petition filed by a Mombasa resident.

The Road Maintenance Levy Fund Order, 2024, increased the levy from Sh18 per litre to Sh25.

The order follows a petition by Mr George Odhiambo Juma, a taxi driver, in which he argued that the order was adopted without meaningful public participation.

“That pending the hearing of the Notice of Motion dated 2nd August 2024 inter-partes, a conservatory order is hereby issued, restraining the respondents, either jointly and or severally, whether by themselves, their officers, agents, employees or other person or entity acting under the respondents' instructions, from implementing and enforcing the Road Maintenance Levy Fund (Imposition) Order 2024,” Justice Gregory Mutai said.

The judge directed the case to be heard on August 28 before the Presiding Judge Olga Sewe.

Mr Odhiambo said the government published a notice on June 25, 2024 calling for public participation on the review of the Road Maintenance Levy Fund Order, 2016.

The notice by the Ministry of Roads and Transport invited members of public and stakeholders to various public participation, which was scheduled for July 8, 2024 in 10 selected regions nationally.

Mr Odhiambo argued that the public participation was conducted on July 8 but it was a ‘mirage’ as there was no meaningful public participation.

“The ten public participation centres or venues were very few and covered wide catchment areas. That impeded public participation because many Kenyans could not afford to travel to those selected and designated centres to give their views,” he said.

He added that the government only designated one day for the exercise and which was not adequate and he for example, could not attend because he was ferrying his passengers.

“If the respondents had scheduled more days for public participation, I would have had a chance to give my views and so are many Kenyans,” he said.

Mr Odhiambo said many Kenyans are currently undergoing hard economic times and it would be unfair to increase the levy.

He said the levy imposed by the government is unreasonable in the harsh “economic times and not in touch with the reality on the ground, a fact which the respondents are aware of but ignored”.

He said former Roads CS Kipchumba Murkomen (now Sports CS) had made an undertaking that the government would come up with a decision that correspondents with the recommendations from the public, which was against increase of the fuel levy.

In a statement, Mr Murkomen had stated that the country was grappling with a maintenance deficit of SH78 billion the current financial year alone. He said with the trend, it was projected that by the 2028/2029 financial year, the gap would have risen to Sh315 billion.

Mr Odhiambo said the government did not sensitize the members of the public in the rate, rationale and impact of the proposed increase.

“The call for the public to submit views and memoranda was not useful because the public remained largely ignorant of the process. For instance, the petitioner was not made aware of why there was need to increase the levy,” he said.