Silvanus Osoro, Chief Whip of the National Assembly, has revealed how the Kenya Kwanza administration used unsavoury tactics to arm-twist opposition MPs during the Finance Bill, 2023 voting in parliament.
According to Osoro, the government mustered enough votes to defeat Azimio La Umoja MPs during the crucial bill’s passage, which outlines revenue-raising measures for the government.
Osoro has claimed that the Kenya Kwanza MPs engineered the absence of opposition lawmakers in the house at a critical time, raising the prospect of betrayal in Azimio.
Speaking during a United Democratic Alliance (UDA) activation drive in Kisii, Osoro claimed that the government went to any length to ensure that the bill was passed, including bribing some opposition lawmakers to skip crucial sessions.
The ruling coalition gained a numerical advantage, according to the outspoken South Mugirango MP, after some Azimio MPs were given soup to travel abroad or pretend to be sick.
“I had to find a way, in Bunge I had to look for soup,” he said of the government’s uncouth and unethical tactics in pushing for parliamentary agenda.
The revelations add a new wrinkle to the opposition’s parliamentary defeat.
“I had to look for ways, by hook or by crook, to get it through, I had to manipulate systems, I looked for ways to get the opposition MPs to play our tune, I conspired with the opposition MPs and got some of them to absent themselves om the House so that I could get the numbers. Some were sponsored to go abroad while others were bribed to feign illness,” Osoro claimed.
Outlining the elaborate scheme by the ruling coalition to defeat the opposition, Osoro said that his job as the majority whip would have been on the line had the bill flopped.
“I heard some people saying MPs should have voted ‘No’, while others said vote ‘Yes’ to the Finance Bill. Some told me to vote ‘No’. Let me ask you, I am the Chief Whip of the Government… the bill that is being debated is that before it is presented in Parliament and before anyone else sets eyes on it, it first comes to my desk. We are the ones who draft these bills,” said Osoro.
“If it gets to the floor and is voted down, the position for Osoro is gone. I cannot allow that to happen. If it is voted down, my position as chief whip could be taken away.”
The claim puts several Azimio members on the spot for failing to turn up in parliament during voting despite publicly vowing to be on the forefront to shoot the bill down.
