• Wamuchomba, a UDA MP, has been critical of the housing levy and came out to commend the courts for the ruling that termed it unconstitutional.
• Ichung'wah faulted her proposed amendment saying the clause on deduction of housing levy had already been passed.
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Majority Leader Kimani Ichung’wah and Githunguri MP Gathoni Wa Wamuchomba clashed on Wednesday during the tabling of amendments to the Affordable Housing Bill, 2023.
The bill whose debate started Thursday last week was at its third reading stage Wednesday during the afternoon session.
Wamuchomba had proposed the deletion of clause 9(a) to do away with the proposed 1.5 per cent housing levy.
“I move that clause 9 be amended by deleting paragraph (a) with the justification that the affordable housing levy is punitive to Kenyans who are faced with the high cost of living and their lives are difficult as we speak,” she said.
“Also, the levy increases the cost of doing business in Kenya and may lead to most businesses closing down or retrenching employees. Further, there is no correlation between paying the levy and owning a house. Therefore, it is proposed that this clause be deleted.”
Her sentiments were met by protests from proponents of the Bill led by the Kikuyu MP, prompting the intervention of temporary speaker Martha Wangari.
“No, order members! I have the Bill here. Hon Wamuchomba’s filed amendment is to delete 9(a) that all monies deducted or payable as levy under this Act, that whole (a) to be deleted. So, she is perfectly in order so we will allow her to move,” the Gilgil MP ruled.
The Affordable Housing Bill, 2023, was introduced in the House to seal loopholes that the courts said surrounded the implementation of the housing levy as proposed under the Finance Act, 2023.
Among them was to ensure public participation is conducted and no Kenyan is excluded from the programme as was previously the case where only salaried Kenyans were to pay the 1.5 per cent levy.
When he rose to oppose Wamuchomba’s proposed amendment, Ichung’wah pointed out that the MP was asking the House to act on a matter that had already been settled.
“Chair, you know why we are lost on the Member for Githunguri’s amendment; clause 9 is talking about the monies that will be paid into the fund. Clause 4 is the one that spoke about what she is speaking about; the levy,” he said.
“Clause 4 has already passed, therefore unless she had deleted clause 4 then what she is saying makes absolutely no sense because the fund is already there Hon Speaker and I strongly oppose that particular amendment,” he added.
“These are things we say in funerals and rallies not in legislation making.”
Wangari intervened yet again and insisted that Wamuchomba was in order to propose the amendments deleting the provision for levies deducted for housing to be deposited in the housing fund provided for in clause 4.
“So she is perfectly in order,” she affirmed. “So let her move.”
The proposed amendment was, however, shot down by members.
Wamuchomba, a UDA MP, has been critical of the housing levy and came out to commend the courts for the ruling that termed it unconstitutional.
She described the government’s decision to impose the levy solely on formal sector workers as lacking “rational explanation” and the “most contentious issues that we have right now within the 2023 Finance Act”.