NYS wants court to dismiss petition challenging Sh2.1bn Nakuru road deal

Audio By Vocalize

 

The National Youth Service (NYS) has opposed a petition seeking to declare its Sh2.1 billion road deal with Nakuru County Government unconstitutional.

NYS signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Nakuru County Government on November 7, 2025, for road deal execution, including maintaining all the feeder roads under the Imarisha Barabara programme.

However, Nakuru residents, Simon Nasieku, Benson Macharia, Kepha Omuyoma and Paul Muchiri moved before Judge Julius Nangea and challenged the deal on account of lack of public participation.

The four filed two related petitions challenging the deal. The said petitions are set to be consolidated.

However, in a Preliminary Objection (PO), NYS, through the office of the Attorney General (AG), wants the petition filed last year to be dismissed with costs.

State Counsel Prisca Adomeyon submits that the High Court lacks jurisdiction to hear the petition, because the same was drafted prematurely.

“The petition is premature for non-compliance with the mandatory provisions of the Constitution and Intergovernmental Relations Act,” submits the AG.

Adomeyon argues that the Constitution provides that disputes arising out of intergovernmental arrangements must first be subjected to alternative dispute resolution before the court is involved.

The AG claims that the petition discloses no reasonable cause of action against NYS as the engagement with the county government constituted a lawful inter-governmental collaboration.

“The deal is explicitly exempted from standard commercial procurement procedures under the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act,” she notes.

Further, the AG argues that the four petitioners lack legal authority to challenge the internal administrative processes and Council approvals of the NYS.

Adomeyon says that under the NYS Act, internal corporate governance compliance is strictly between the statutory body and its appointing authority, and cannot form the basis of a constitutional petition by third-party private actors.

“The petition fails to satisfy the established legal threshold for constitutional petitions as it relies on general, vague, and unsubstantiated allegations without sufficient clarity of how NYS breached specific constitutional provisions,” the AG deposes.

The PO challenges the petition filed last year December, which caused the court to temporarily suspend the MOU until the case concludes.

Stay informed. Subscribe to our newsletter

The four in the two petitions filed, want the court to stop the county government from approving or making any payments to NYS.

They argued that the agreement bypassed legal procedures and could not be operationalized.

They also accused the county government of flouting the law and bypassing the County assembly’s decision-making.

“The agreement requires the county to pay 50 per cent of the contract value before operations begin, despite its failure to settle pending bills owed to existing contractors,” they deposed.

They submitted that the county had failed to conduct mandatory public participation, denying residents a chance to approve the process.

Before the court case, Nasieku and Macharia wrote to the Controller of Budget (CoB) to stop any request from Nakuru County Government emanating from the MOU signed.

The two argued that the MoU did not follow the due procedure and would disrupt planned development activities as captured in the Annual Development Plan 2025.