HIGH COURT DECLARES CREDIT REFERENCE BUREAU REGULATION 2020(AMENDMENT) NULL AND VOID
The High Court of Kenya has declared Credit Reference Bureau Regulation 2020(Amendment) null and void following a successful petition by Benjamin Bogongo. Though the Petitioner (Benjamin Bogongo) had move to court challenging the inclusion of regulations 28(4) and 32(4) in the final regulation enacted by Cabinet Secretary treasury & Planning and the Central Bank of Kenya on ground that the said provision did not go through public participation. The Petitioner also pointed out to court that the regulation failed to comply to section 11 of the Statutory Instruments Act that requires such regulations to be delivered to the clerk National Assembly within 7 days of their publication before they can be tabled before parliament for adoption and/or consideration.
From the evidence presented in court, the receiving stamp by the clerk National Assembly indicated the same was received on 5th May 2020 having been published the Central Bank of Kenya on 8th April 2020 being over 20 days late.
Section 11 of the Statutory Instruments Act which is couched in mandatory terms requires such legislations to be transmitted to the Clerk National Assembly for tabling within 7 sittings of the National assembly from the date of their publication and failure to transmit result in such regulations being null and void by operation of law. The court thus declared that since the Statutory Instruments register of the National Assembly showed that the Regulation was received on 5th May 2020, and not within the 7 sittings as required by law, the said regulation ended up being Null and Void by operations of law.
The effect of this decision is that the applicable regulation as it stands now is CRB Regulation of 2013 unless this decision is appealed against and a stay order sought and granted.
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