Senate calls for special sitting on Tuesday to debate contentious 2024 Finance Bill

It is a race against time for the National Assembly Committee on Finance as it holds its final public participation exercise on the finance bill in a public forum at the KICC on Monday.

As revealed by Bomet senator Hillary Sigei, Senate Majority Leader and Kericho senator Aaron Cheruiyot has called for a special sitting Tuesday to discuss contentious issues in the bill.

And even before the committee retreats to do a report on its two-week public participation, pressure continues to pile on members of parliament to shoot down the bill.

The Anglican Church leading the charge, with calls to MPs to completely do away with proposals that seek to further weigh on an already overburdened Kenyan populace.

“Parliament needs to look at those taxation proposals and only bring to us taxes that are going to support government efforts to do mission and develop. But those that are going to hurt us and make the cost of living hard and the cost of business hard, should be done away with,” said Sapit.

With the finance bill comes resources. Resources which the formula of sharing them in the country has become a hot potato topic, pitying friends and foes alike.

DAP-K party leader Eugene Wamalwa wants Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua’s position on the sharing of revenue through the ‘one man, one vote, one shilling’ formula respected, an opinion senate majority leader Aaron Cheruiyot says can only be decided at the Senate.

“This a conversation whose time has come. Let us freely talk about it. Tusiwe tena na mambo ya vitisho ama intimidation ama isolation of any community or individual,” said Wamalwa.