Babu Owino explains confusion after Azimio MPs skip finance bill vote
Babu Owino blames the parliament speaker after some Azimio MPs miss voting for the controversial finance bill, 2023
Babu Owino blames the parliament speaker after some Azimio MPs miss voting for the controversial finance bill, 2023.
On Wednesday, June 14, Embakasi East MP Babu Owino provided an explanation for his absence from the Parliamentary voting on the Finance Bill, 2023.
The legislator said in a statement that he has scheduled a meeting with his lawyer to get ready for his defense hearing at Milimani Law Courts scheduled for Thursday, June 15.
He informed Opiyo Wandayi, the minority leader of the National Assembly, of his predicament before departing for the meeting.
The MP claimed that the Speaker of the National Assembly, Moses Wetangula, was to blame for the blunder and said that the initial intention of the Parliamentary leadership was for the voting to happen after the third reading.
Therefore, he perceived malice in the circumstances, pointing out that many MPs from the Azimio la Umoja alliance were unable to participate in the voting due to the initial directive.
“I realized that the Speaker changed and made another ruling that voting was to take place on Wednesday. By that time, so many members were depending on the fact that voting will occur next week and that explains why so many members missed, especially from the Azimio Coalition,” he stated.
Further, he castigated the passing of the Finance Bill in the Second Reading claiming that it was a recipe for disaster looming for Kenyans.
“I want to state that the Finance Bill 2023 is retrogressive. Even if (ODM party leader) Raila Odinga instructed me to support it, I would not do it because of my allegiance to my people,” he clarified.
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On the other hand, Mumias East MP Peter Salasya wondered why an official communication was not issued for MPs to suspend their travel ahead of the Finance Bill voting process. The legislator is currently in Morocco.
Out of 257 MPs present at the August House, 176 voted for the bill while 81 legislators voted against it during the second reading. The Bill now moves to the Third and final reading where legislators get a chance to amend certain clauses within the Bill.
The Finance Bill, 2023, was tabled in Parliament on Tuesday, June 13, by the National Assembly’s Finance and National Planning Committee.
The committee, chaired by Molo MP Kuria Kimani, advocated for certain amendments in the Bill to cater to the concerns raised by the public.
This involved reduction of the Housing Fund tax from three percent to 1.5 percent. Further, the proposed digital tax was revised to five percent from the initial 16 percent.
Some of the clauses such as the proposed 16 per cent Value Added Tax were not revised.
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