Constitutionality of Amendments to the Auctioneers Act

The High Court of Kenya found in Josephat Musila Mutua & 9 others v Attorney General & 3 others that the new amendments to the Auctioneers Act that introduced section 3 (3) and section 11 (2) were unconstitutional. The Court's reasons for so holding was that the process by which the amendments were introduced did not take into account public participation. The court on this account also denigrated the introduction of the amendments through Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Act, (No 11 of 2017) as the court was of the view that a Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) was only meant for minor amendments that had no effect on the social or political status of the nation. The court was particularly critical of the amendment to section 11 (2) because the said amendment required an auctioneer to stop practicing at the age of 70 years. The court took the view that this was discriminatory and unconstitutional.