High court declines to stop rollout of new vehicles' registration plates
Omtatah had gone to court to stop the rollout of the new plates which is being undertaken by the NTSA.
The high court has declined to declare the tender for the production and installation of the latest version of the motor vehicle's registration plates as unconstitutional.
Busia senator Okiya Omtatah had in 2023 moved the court to declare the tender - SDC/50/2019-2020 - for supply, installation, testing, training and commissioning of integrated and securitized license plates production facility and raw materials by the Kenya Prisons Service (KPS) as unconstitutional.
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Omtatah had sued the Ministry of Interior and National Administration, the State Department for Correctional Services, the Kenya Prisons Service and the Commissioner General of Prisons to stop the rollout of the new plates which is being undertaken by the National Transport and Safety Authority.
The senator argued that the tender should be declared unconstitutional because the project was not introduced through the national budget as required under Articles 220(1) and 221 of the constitution.
He wanted the high court to declare that the various institutions he had sued should utilise the idle but serviceable equipment and materials the government had already procured.
Omtatah had also argued that this Tender seeks to acquire a complete production plant for making number plates and the same will cause massive job losses for the prisoners who have been earning from making the number plates while transforming Kamiti Maximum Security Prison.
He also lamented that it was prudent to utilise the idle serviceable equipment procured by the previous tenders otherwise the machines would go to waste.
Dismissed application
But Justice Lawrence Mugambi faulted the Senator for failure to utilise the available dispute resolution mechanisms before seeking interventions from the court and dismissed the application.
"Time and again it has been said that where there exists another sufficient and adequate avenue to resolve a dispute, a party ought not to trivialize the jurisdiction of the constitutional Court by bringing actions that could very well and effectively be dealt with in that other forum. Such party ought to seek redress under such other legal regime rather than trivialise constitutional litigation," stated the judge.
"Instead of the petitioner utilizing the statutory provided mechanism first, he rushed into filing this petition seeking a resolution from the court. In the circumstances, this court declines to exercise jurisdiction under the doctrine of exhaustion of remedies. Without jurisdiction, this court finds that determining any other issue is immaterial."
The government commenced the process of upgrading the number plate production equipment in 2013 with the goal of introducing new generation number plates.
In effect, tender No. KPS/T/8/2013 for supply, installation, testing and commissioning of modern number plate production machines was announced.
The tender was awarded to Tropical Technology Limited which signed the contract on April 4, 2014.
The requisitioned and delivered machines included embossing machines and tools, two hot stamping machines and one pneumatic press machine.
Omtatah said the prison's personnel were trained on the use of these machines; they were then commissioned at Kamiti Prison.
"Soon after, in 2015, the government initiated another process to purchase the aforementioned machines and equipment. This was through Tender No. KPS/ICB/T/10/2014/2015 -2016/2016-2017 for supply and delivery of motorized vehicle number plate blanks and Tender No. KPS/ICB/T/11/2014/2015 – 2016/2016-2017 for supply and delivery of motorized vehicle number plate hot stamping foil," he said.
"This Tender faced with numerous court cases was eventually once again awarded to Tropical Technologies Limited. It is averred that these machines have produced over 10,000 new generation number plates. Further, that the machines are and have been routinely inspected,"
Omtatah had argued that with the appointment of new persons at the Ministry of Interior and without a reasonable justification or regard to the existing tenders, restrictive Tender No. SDC/50/2019-2020, for supply, of the same materials was secretly floated.
