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Lawmakers yesterday concurred with President William Ruto’s memorandum to delete all the clauses in the controversial Finance Bill.

The MPs who considered the bill did not only delete the clauses but went ahead and removed the title of the bill which now means that the bill is no longer in existence.

Following the decision of the house, National Assembly speaker Moses Wetangula disclosed that he would convey the same to Ruto who declined to assent to the bill and instead sent a memorandum to the House recommending the deletion of all clauses.

He said: “For the information of the House, I wish to note that the Committee has recommended that the House agrees with the President’s reservations that all the clauses of the Bill be deleted.”

Earlier Wetangula reminded the MPS that if they wanted to overturn the president’s decisions, they were required to raise at least two thirds of the house.

In a communication , Wetangula  told members that should they fail to overturn the President’s reservations, then there will be nothing to take back to him for consideration.

Contrary opinion

 During consideration of the bill, members with contrary opinion were allowed to raise their issues and demonstrate that they had 233 members present in this House to vote in support of what they wanted to reverse.

He said: “Any member who wishes to move the House to reinstate any clause of the Finance Bill 2024 shall be required to marshal the support of at least 233 Members, this is in keeping with the provisions of Article 115 (4) of the Constitution which requires that such a proposal be supported by at least two-thirds of the members of the National Assembly.”

The rejection of the bill comes after Ruto bowed to pressure from youths calling themselves Generation Z and withdrew the bill after they staged protests to demonstrate their opposition to the bill.

The protests which were held countrywide and spread to other major towns and cities such as Kisumu, Nakuru, Eldoret, Nyeri and Mombasa and saw the youth storming parliament immediately after MPs passed the bill in the house.

 A total of 195 MPs voted in favour of the bill, and 104 MPs—mostly from the opposition—voted against it.

Those opposed to the bill claimed that its passage would have added punitive new taxes and raised taxes on others that would escalate the cost of living.

Tax proposals 

Some of the tax proposals which had earlier been introduced in the bill included 16 per cent Value Added Tax (VAT) on bread, Excise duty on vegetable oil, VAT on transportation of sugar, 2.5 per cent Motor Vehicle Tax and Eco Levy on locally manufactured products.

“Consequently, having reflected on the continuing conversation around the content of the Finance Bill, 2024, I will decline to assent to the Bill,” he said in a televised address from State House on Wednesday flanked by the ruling party members of Parliament who voted for the Bill.

During yesterday’s consideration of the bill, Leader of Majority Kimani Ichung’wah who moved the amendments said that it is unfortunate that even the good clauses were deleted.

He said: “I beg to move that we delete all those clauses. It’s unfortunate because when Kenyans said reject, we rejected everything good and bad. I just took liberty to point out the good that we rejected and it is now rejected, dead and buried.”

Misinformation

He regretted that the reason behind the rejection of the bill is because of mis-information that was circulated to Kenyans.

He said: “I remember at one point engaging with Kenyans and a young lady told me that you guys are so heartless, you are even adding VAT to cancer drugs. And that was sold out there and Kenyans believed it. Far from the truth, there was not an amendment or any proposal in the Finance Bill.”

Kitui Central MP Makali Mulu told the House to do away with the bill irrespective of whether the bill has good clauses as Kenyans had made a decision that they are not happy with it.

He said: “I have listened to the Majority Leader and what I thought we should just do, that even though we had some clauses that would have helped Kenyans, Kenyans did say we do away with this Bill. Can he just say we agree with the President and delete those clauses without any explanation?”

Keiyo South MP Gideon Kimaiyo sought to know if the speaker will be taking an empty bill to the president should they reject the bill.

He said: “My question, Hon. Speaker, I assume this House will agree with the President and we will pass everything removing all the clauses. So shall we be taking back an empty bill to the President.”