All eyes on Parliament as anti-Finance Bill demos return to Nairobi

Members of Parliament are on Thursday set to resume debating the 2024 Finance Bill which has sparked ire among Kenyans over its push for more taxation.

After the National Assembly Finance and National Planning Committee tabled its report to Parliament on Tuesday following the bill’s public participation, legislators spent the better part of Wednesday discussing the proposed law.

The debate continues on Thursday, with National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetangula directing any MP planning to move an amendment to the Bill to do so by 1 p.m.

Lawmakers are later in the afternoon set to vote to decide on the Finance Committee’s report on the Bill during its second reading.

Meanwhile, Kenyans have organised a second round of protests similar to Tuesday’s march in the Nairobi city centre.

Tuesday’s protests kicked off just before President William Ruto’s government announced that it had axed some proposed taxes in the contentious Bill.

But Kenyans maintain that the Bill should be dropped wholly, and the ‘Occupy Parliament’ protests will be held in various parts of Nairobi, according to flyers circulated by the demonstrations’ organisers on social media.

While President William Ruto acknowledges that every Kenyan has a right to protest, he maintains that the ongoing demos will not cripple his government’s decision-making.

“Civil society is free to do what they want to do; those who want to demonstrate, they can demonstrate, it is their right, no problem, but decisions have to be made by institutions,” Ruto said on Wednesday.

On Tuesday next week, MPs are set to move amendments approved by the speaker at the committee of the whole, also known as the Third Reading of the Bill.

Legislators will then take a final vote on the proposed law.