Cord leader Raila Odinga yesterday accused President Uhuru Kenyatta of violating the rights of the marginalised communities by refusing to assent to the Petroleum Bill 2015.
He now wants MPs to unite and reject Uhuru’s memorandum on the Bill.
The Bill sought to provide a sharing formula of petroleum revenue between the host counties, residents and the national government.
Residents and their counties were to get 10 and 20 per cent, with 70 per cent going to the national government.
But the memorandum seeks to reduce the benefits to the host communities to five per cent.
Uhuru sent the memorandum to the National Assembly on September 23.
“The rejection of the Bill is a slap on the face of communities that had finally seen a realistic chance to pull themselves from the dehumanisation of state-sanctioned marginalisation and poverty to which the past constitutional order had condemned them,” Raila said at Capitol Hill.
Though it requires two-thirds of the 349 MPs in the National Assembly to overturn the presidential memorandum, Raila said Uhuru’s action undermines the spirit of legislating.
“This is a clear violation of the Constitution and an attempt to reintroduce marginalisation.”
The Bill was passed by Parliament after protracted and exhaustive negotiations. In what appears to be an ambiguous provision, Uhuru has proposed the national government determine the proportion of what host counties get “purportedly to cater for equitable share of taxes”.
“With the demand on equitable share of taxes, [Uhuru] is attempting to place the entitlements of the host communities at the mercy of the executive,” Raila said.
By November 30, Tullow Oil, the firm exploring oil in Kenya, had raised reserves to 750 million barrels of crude oil deposits.