Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) Secretary General Edwin Sifuna has said that the party will expel MPs who snubbed voting on the controversial Finance Bill, 2023.
The National Assembly on Wednesday voted 176 to 81 in favour of the Bill to sail through Second Reading.
It comes up for the Third Reading stage next Tuesday.
During the sitting, at least 92 MPs from across the political aisle were absent with the majority being from the opposition's Azimio coalition.
Speaking in Bungoma on Friday, Sifuna revealed that the party has already handed over expulsion letters to the MPs who were missing in action during the voting exercise.
“We don’t want cowards and those who can easily be compromised to vote for the bill, we have already handed expulsion letters to them,” Sifuna said.
The Nairobi senator said ODM will not entertain any excuses from the targeted MPs.
He said that the core mandate of the elected MPs is to stand firm in Parliament and defend citizens against any burden by the Kenya Kwanza administration.
He affirmed that the opposition will continue offering strong oversight to President Ruto’s administration.
Sifuna cited the Nzoia sugar company incident which Ruto’s administration allegedly wants privatised.
“We are the ones who made noise to prevent Nzoia sugar company from being sold to the private investors therefore we play a vital role in protecting our resources,” Sifuna added.
The city senator blamed the Kenya Kwanza MPs for opposing the increase of funds to counties noting that Ruto’s senators rejected Sh407 billion allocation to counties.
“Kenya Kwanza MPs are the ones who don’t want our counties to get the lion’s share because they voted No for counties to get Sh407 billion from the national treasury,” he said.
Sifuna said that in the 2023-24 financial year, counties have been allocated less than Sh407 billion shillings contrary to the initial proposal.
