Parliament never considers views given during public participations - Senator Ledama Olekina

During a panel discussion on Citizen TV Thursday morning, the legislator said that the proposals floated during public participation are never considered for further deliberation.

He maintained his assertion that even the public views aired during a public participation held on Monday on the unsavoury Finance Bill will also not be pondered on.

"I can tell you this that as a politician, as a parliamentarian, whenever we go to public participation we collect the views of the public but we don't consider them. That's a fact," he said.

"All the views of Kenyans in regards to the painful reality, none of them will be considered."

Senator Olekina stated that there is a dire need to provide room for demystifying the 2024/2025 budget with Kenyan citizens to foster camaraderie between the state and its electorate. 

"The most important thing we need to focus on is to try to listen to Kenyans because we are not listening to them," he said.

He also claimed that the reason behind the government's move to inflate taxation rates in the proposed budget is the product of coercion from external players who seek to control the nation's coffers.

"The challenge is that we are not controlling ourselves. The IMF and the World Bank are the ones who are dictating which policies we should be able to put," said Ledama.

He added: "You will continue to have a utopian budget that will be followed by a number of supplementary budgets for you to try and realign your own budget to see what you can be able to achieve."

The proposed budget has upscaled to a projected Ksh.4 trillion up from Ksh.3.7 trillion in the 2023/24 fiscal year.

Treasury Cabinet Secretary (CS) Njuguna Ngung'u is set to present the budget in Parliament today, Thursday, for its reading ahead of a parliamentary debate.