EALA MP Karobia defends Majority Whip Osoro after confessing to using 'bribery' for passing of Finance Bill

EALA MP Maina Karobia has defended National Assembly Majority Whip Silvanus Osoro for using all means possible to ensure that the controversial Finance Bill 2023 was passed by the House.

This comes after Osoro, on Thursday, admitted to using crooked and unethical methods, including bribery, to persuade some Azimio MPs into supporting the motion endorsed by the Kenya Kwanza administration.

"I had to look for ways by hook or crook to get it through. I had to manipulate systems; I looked for ways to get the opposition MPs to play to our tune. I conspired with some opposition MPs and got some of them to be absent from the House so that I could get the numbers. Some of them were sponsored to go abroad while others were bribed to feign illness," Osoro said during a UDA recruitment drive in Kitutu Chache South Constituency according to the Nation.

Speaking on Citizen TV's Daybreak Show on Friday, Karobia noted that it is the responsibility of the Majority Whip to ensure that the interests of the current regime are given top billing in Parliament.

"It is the responsibility of Osoro as the majority whip to ensure what is in the best interest of the ruling party and Kenyans carries the day in Parliament," said Karobia.

"If the Finance Bill 2023 didn't pass, the person who would have been put on the spot is Osoro because he is the Majority Whip."

When asked  by show host Ayub Abdikadir why Osoro had to result to bribery in order to ensure that Kenya Kwanza had a numerical advantage against Azimio in the House during the vote, Karobia, tongue in cheek, insisted that the Majority Whip had to be 'innovative and pragmatic.'

"As a Majority Whip, you have to be innovative. The people you are leading are looking up to you to offer leadership, solutions and direction. People will not be there to direct themselves. It's a matter of being pragmatic because if you don't succeed on such matters people will be looking at you as a failure," he said.