A lawyer has moved to the High Court in Nairobi seeking orders to stop Parliament and related offices from organising the 2026 National Prayer Breakfast using public money.
In the Notice of Motion filed under a constitutional petition, Lempaa Suyianka has sued the Parliamentary Service Commission, the National Assembly, the Senate, the Attorney-General and the Commission on Administrative Justice.
The petitioner is asking the court to certify the matter as urgent and, pending the hearing of the main petition, issue restraining orders barring the respondents from organising the 2026 National Prayer Breakfast using public funds.
He is also asking the court to compel the first to third respondents to disclose information on how much public money was spent on the 2025 National Prayer Breakfast.
In his application, the petitioner says he wrote several letters to the National Assembly and the Senate between March and September 2025 seeking information under Article 35 of the Constitution and the Access to Information Act.
Among the information he sought was whether the National Prayer Breakfast is funded using public money, when the 2025 event was scheduled, how much taxpayers’ money was spent on the 2024 and 2025 editions, and why the event is held in a five-star hotel instead of a venue that can accommodate members of the public.
He further states that he lodged a formal freedom of information request in March 2025 directed to the Clerk of the National Assembly seeking details of the 2025 National Prayer Breakfast.
According to the court papers, the petitioner later wrote to both the clerks of the National Assembly and the Senate after his request was declined.
He says the Commission on Administrative Justice also wrote to the two offices in July 2025 urging them to release the information sought.
The petitioner claims that instead of providing the information, the clerks advised him to seek the details from the Parliamentary Service Commission.
He further states that in October 2025, the Parliamentary Service Commission informed him that the National Prayer Breakfast is included in its annual estimates of expenditure tabled in Parliament.
However, he says the commission still failed to disclose how much money was actually spent on the 2025 event.
In the application, the petitioner accuses the respondents of refusing, failing or neglecting to provide the information sought despite repeated requests.
He argues that the continued withholding of the information violates the constitutional right of access to information.
He also claims that the organisation of national events by Parliament violates the doctrine of separation of powers.
The petitioner says the failure to disclose the expenditure infringes Articles 35 and 33 of the Constitution and undermines the national values and principles of governance, including transparency and accountability.
