{"id":4701,"date":"2025-09-18T13:53:30","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T12:53:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scbetax.com\/gem-live\/?post_type=firm-highlight&#038;p=4701"},"modified":"2026-03-17T07:59:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T07:59:26","slug":"high-court-declares-key-provisions-of-the-pbo-act-unconstitutional","status":"publish","type":"firm-highlight","link":"https:\/\/scbetax.com\/gem-live\/firm-highlight\/high-court-declares-key-provisions-of-the-pbo-act-unconstitutional\/","title":{"rendered":"High Court Declares Key Provisions of the PBO Act Unconstitutional"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Otieno &amp; 2 others vs Attorney General &amp; Another: Katiba Institute &amp;9 others (interested Parties) (Petition E519 of 2024) [2025] KECH 8557 (KLR (Constitutional and Human Rights) (30 April 2025): Judgment<\/p>\n<h3>Key Points<\/h3>\n<p>The High Court declared the following provisions of the Public Benefits Authority Act (2013) (PBO Act) unconstitutional.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Paragraph 5(1) and 5(2) of the Fifth Schedule &#8211; requiring registration of existing NGOs under the<br \/>\nPBO Act;<\/li>\n<li>Sections 18 (1) to (3) and section 19 (1) (b) deal with the procedure for the suspension and<br \/>\ncancellation of a PBO\u2019s certificate of registration.<\/li>\n<li>Section 21(1), 21(9) and 23 (2) which deals with the establishment of a National Federation of<br \/>\nPBOs and membership;<\/li>\n<li>Section 32 imposes a duty on each registered PBO to provide certain information to the PBO<br \/>\nRegulatory Authority; and<\/li>\n<li>Sections 35 and 50 which provide for the composition of the PBO regulatory Authority and the<br \/>\nPBO Disputes tribunal, respectively;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Implications<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>\u00a0No Re-registration Required: Existing NGOs are no longer required to apply for registration under the PBO Act. The Court found the re-registration requirement unconstitutional, violating the rights to association and fair administrative action.<\/li>\n<li>Automatic Transition: The Court ordered the PBO Authority to automatically register NGOs that were already compliant under the previous law.<\/li>\n<li>Other Provisions Invalidated: Some of the other contested provisions (relating to data privacy, forced membership in a national body, and composition of tribunals) were also found to be unconstitutional, in whole or in part.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false},"firm-category":[91],"class_list":["post-4701","firm-highlight","type-firm-highlight","status-publish","hentry","firm-category-bill-review"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scbetax.com\/gem-live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/firm-highlight\/4701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scbetax.com\/gem-live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/firm-highlight"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scbetax.com\/gem-live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/firm-highlight"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scbetax.com\/gem-live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scbetax.com\/gem-live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"firm-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scbetax.com\/gem-live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/firm-category?post=4701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}