The National Assembly’s decision on the contentious Finance Bill, 2023 has revealed President William Ruto’s sizable support in the house.
On Wednesday, President William Ruto’s Kenya Kwanza alliance passed the Bill through the Second Reading Stage, with the bill garnering 176 votes in its favour while 81 voted against it. The Bill, deemed to be significant for Ruto’s tenure, saw MPs from minor parties work in tandem with the government-aligned MPs to guarantee its success. The President’s partnership with certain MPs from Azimio’s faction paid off after the vote divided the opposition coalition and denied them numbers.
It is evident that Mr Ruto used the Bill to affirm his power in the bicameral house after the opposition was unable to come up with enough MPs to reach the 100-member mark. Also, the government mobilized all its MPs from Kenya Kwanza, except for a few who were away from Nairobi or on official duties.
The majority of the 92 MPs who did not show up to vote were part of Azimio la Umoja One Kenya, the group that clutched an opposing stance to the bill. Though some of the MPs from the Azimio faction were present in parliament, they were barred from entering the chambers after the bell was rung or chose to abscond the voting. ODM, led by Raila Odinga, has 85 MPs, yet they were unable to get all of them to vote against the bill, as some have switched their allegiance to Kenya Kwanza.
Out of the 81 legislators who voted against the bill, 42 belonged to the ODM party and 16 were from Kalonzo Musyoka’s Wiper party. 3 legislators from the Jubilee faction voted against the Bill, while the rest either backed it or were not present. According to Alexander Nyamboga, a political analyst, the President could have implemented strategies of divide and conquer to scatter the votes of the opposition.
“The President is a political master schemer and what I see is that he was determined to deny Azimio MPs to affirm his control of the House,” he said.
