'I Love Ruto!' Esther Passaris declares her admiration for the President, expresses support for the Finance Bill

While addressing her TikTok followers, Passaris started off by telling off her detractors, saying that she was tired of the constant threats from voters who have been warning her of losing her seat come 2027.

Passaris, who was one of the many legislators who voted for the 2023 finance bill, directly addressed her detractors telling them to shelve their threats as she would still support causes she believed were meant to help Kenyans.

"Don't threaten me with 2027 with the one you're going to vote for. You don't even know whether you will be alive by then. If your only agenda in 2027 is to vote me out, remember there's gonna be many people who will want to vote me in," she emphatically stated.

"You only have one vote. I was elected by other 750,000 people. So don't give me these threats all the time."

Passaris also said that she was aware that a section of Kenyans had branded her a 'traitor' for supporting the last finance bill. She, however, reiterated that she would still support the upcoming bill if only for the sake of a functional Kenya.

"Those of you who keep calling me 'Msaliti' because I voted for the finance bill, well, there's gonna be another one coming and even though there's some issues I may disagree with, I'm gonna vote for the finance bill," she said.

According to Passaris, the government needed money to stock hospitals with drugs, construct roads, refurbish schools, resettle displaced Kenyans, battle the flood crisis and alleviate the livelihoods of Kenyans thus the high taxation.

"We are going to try and make sure that the finance bill is going to be less harsh on the people but remember, we are a country that is in a bad space," she said.

The legislator also trained her guns on people accusing her of cosying up to the government despite the fact that she was an opposition MP and affiliated with Raila Odinga.

Expressing her admiration for President Ruto, Passaris confessed that she admired his administration and that support for Raila Odinga didn't necessarily mean animosity towards the government of the day.

"(Just because) I'm in Azimio and I'm a Baba Girl, I also admire Ruto, I admire the President, so get with it. I don't give a crap what you think. Just because I'm in Baba's party, doesn't mean I have to hate Ruto. I love the President, I love the way he does things," she confessed.

Amongst the reasons she stated made her admire the President is the recent incident where Ruto phoned Tinsley Nduta, a young schoolgoing girl who went viral after a video of herself lamenting the reopening of schools was shared on Tiktok.

"These kind of things happen very rarely and when they happen they are very special. She will never forget this," Passaris said.

The Finance Bill, 2024 was published on May 9 and is set to be subjected to public participation.

The Bill contains tax proposals that the Kenya Kwanza government wants to use to raise revenue and finance its ambitious projects.

One of the proposals is the introduction of a Motor Vehicle Tax, at a rate of 2.5 per cent of the vehicle's value.