Ruto’s Critics Claims That He Is Pushing The Finance Bill 2023 Down The Throats Of MPs Did Not Hold Any Water
The Mt Kenya Times 
President William Ruto
By: Joseph Mutua Ndonga
Worth Noting:
- Regarding the national housing levy, reports indicated the deductions had been reduced from 3 per cent to 1.5 percent. The tax slapped on social media content creators had been slashed from 15 percent to 5 percent.
- Here, I’m sure many would agree with me. This could not have happened if the President was using strong arm tactics.
- The chairman of the committee Kimani Kuria, who is a Member of Parliament for Molo constituency, was speaking openly.
- Parliament is one of the three arms of the government. So the house is not appendage of the Executive. As people’s representatives, we have a duty to listen to our citizens.
Opposition outfit Azimio La Umoja One Kenya Coalition Party leader Raila Odinga and his brigade are currently capitalizing on the Finance Bill 2023 to advance their political agenda of casting President William Ruto as a ‘dictator’ hell-bent on forcing things to go his way.
The Finance Bill, they would allege, was being opposed by many Kenyans but the President was determined to push it down the throats of the members of parliament.
I disagree. Regarding the question of whether this Bill enjoyed the support of the majority of Kenyans, my question to Azimio is. How did you arrive at the verdict?
I have never heard referring to the outcomes of any scientific opinion polls conducted.
Yes, I agree that a number of groupings which had presented their views and memoranda to the relevant committees of parliament had made two key recommendations.
One, the Bill should not be passed in its current form. They gave a raft of proposals on areas that should be amended.
The Azimio functionaries, on the other hand, would take a radical position calling for a total rejection of the Bill.
After receiving the public views, the National Assembly’s Finance and National Planning Committee retreated to Naivasha to review the Bill.
The leadership of committee later announced. We have taken into consideration the views of the people.
We have factored them. We now have a new version of the Bill which we shall table in Parliament.
Let me give example of the two key amendments introduced.
Regarding the national housing levy, reports indicated the deductions had been reduced from 3 per cent to 1.5 percent. The tax slapped on social media content creators had been slashed from 15 percent to 5 percent.
Here, I’m sure many would agree with me. This could not have happened if the President was using strong arm tactics.
The chairman of the committee Kimani Kuria, who is a Member of Parliament for Molo constituency, was speaking openly.
Parliament is one of the three arms of the government. So the house is not appendage of the Executive.
As people’s representatives, we have a duty to listen to our citizens.
They have spoken with us. We have considered their views.
As for the president, one thing remained clear. Of course, his wish was to see this Bill sail through.
But while noting he is not an MP and hence he is not eligible to vote for it, he knew he had only one option: to engage the MPs and lobby them to pass the Bill.
Contrary to the impression created by his critics, I want to say this.
At no time the President resorted to using blackmail and intimidation. He has instead been using persuasive language to reach out to MPs.
He is however on record saying this. I’m waiting to see the MPs who will not support and vote in favor of this Bill. This is because it is mainly designed to create jobs for millions of jobless ‘hustlers’.
In the Affordable Housing Plan, one million jobs would be created every year.
The head of state posed. If you reject it, how do you think the hustlers of this Nation will feel? They will interpret this as a big betrayal.
So next time, do you expect them to elect you?
This is not pushing the Bill down the throat. It is part of the card used in the lobbying strategy.
To me, I would have expected Raila Odinga to be the last person to fault Dr Ruto.
This is because former President Uhuru Kenyatta and himself were using a similar strategy during the reign of the ‘handshake’ government.
I remember the duo used to first invite and meet their troops at separate meetings.
This cleared the way for a joint parliamentary group meeting. The duo always took this opportunity to lobby them to support and vote in favor of the Bills or motions they had interest in.
With due respect to Raila, let me say this. Today, he curves a niche of being holier-than-thou.
This Finance Bill is punitive and oppressive; he would tell his troops and rally them to reject it in totality.
In last year’s poll, we know that Raila contested the presidency for the fifth time. He however lost the election to Dr Ruto. He is yet to accept this bitter reality and move on.
Putting this aside, I want to ask him this question. If you could have won and become the President, how did you expect to run the government?
Just like Dr Ruto, you had made a raft of promises. In the implementation plan, there was no short-cut or miracle you would have performed.
The answer lied in raising monies through taxation.
President Ruto is doing the same thing. So, I would not expect you to succeed in inciting Kenyans to go back to the streets.
The truth of the matter is that Ruto inherited a dilapidated economy.
He also assumed office at a time when the country was being confronted by four other main challenges: Drought/famine (rated as the worst in 40 years), Russia-Ukraine war, hefty foreign debts and at a time when the country was recovering from the devastating effects of Covid-19 pandemic.
With this, I’m happy to note Kenyans are heeding the President’s call to give him time to rebuild the economy.
Joseph Mutua Ndonga is a writer and political analyst based in Nairobi
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