A Nairobi lawyer has moved to the High Court seeking to compel Parliament and related offices to disclose how much public money they spent on the 2025 National Prayer Breakfast and to block the use of public funds for the 2026 edition of the event.
Advocate Lempaa Suyianka filed a constitutional petition before the Constitutional and Human Rights Division in Nairobi, naming the Parliamentary Service Commission, the National Assembly, the Senate, the Attorney General and the Commission on Administrative Justice as respondents.
In his petition, Suyianka argues that the institutions violated his constitutional right of access to information under Article 35 by failing to release details of public expenditure linked to the National Prayer Breakfast.
According to court filings, the lawyer made a formal Freedom of Information request on March 13, 2025, addressed to the Clerk of the National Assembly, seeking a breakdown of costs incurred during the 2025 National Prayer Breakfast.
After the request was declined, Suyianka says he sent follow-up letters in June 2025 to the clerks of both the National Assembly and the Senate, but received no substantive response.
The petition further states that in July 2025, the Commission on Administrative Justice wrote to the two clerks, urging them to disclose the information sought.
Despite the intervention, Suyianka claims the clerks advised him to direct his request to the Parliamentary Service Commission.
He further states that in October 2025, the Parliamentary Service Commission informed him that the National Prayer Breakfast formed part of its annual estimates of expenditure tabled in Parliament under Article 221 of the Constitution, but did not disclose the actual amount spent on the 2025 event.
In the petition, the lawyer contends that the continued refusal to release the information violates Articles 35(1)(a) and 35(3) of the Constitution and erodes national values and principles of governance, including transparency and accountability under Article 10.
Suyianka also argues that Parliament’s involvement in organizing the National Prayer Breakfast offends the doctrine of separation of powers and that financing the event using public resources amounts to imprudent expenditure, contrary to Article 201 of the Constitution.
He further accuses the Commission on Administrative Justice of failing to enforce its constitutional and statutory mandate to compel disclosure of the requested information.
The lawyer is seeking declarations that the respondents breached the Constitution, orders compelling them to disclose the expenditure details, and an order restraining the use of public funds to organize the 2026 National Prayer Breakfast.
However, High Court Judge Bahati Mwamuye declined to issue interim orders, directing instead that the case proceed to a full hearing on its merits.
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