President William Ruto has warned MPs from the Azimio la Umoja camp against being intimidated to vote against the Finance Bill when it is tabled on Tuesday.
Ruto told the leaders to ignore threats as voters will have them to blame.
“Wewe unandikiwa barua na chama na hawa wenye walikupatia kura? Umesoma barua yao? Hawa wenye wanataka kazi umesoma barua yao? Soma barua ya watu wamekuajiri” he said.
Ruto who spoke during a church service in Kakamega on Sunday, questioned why the legislators would reject the Bill yet the youth are going to benefit from jobs to be created through the various policy interventions.
At one point, he posed to the crowd whether the MPs should approve or reject it-“wapitishe”, they responded as Ruto gestured saying that is the decision.
“If you are an MP, are you going to vote against the Bill so that we continue importing furniture, fish, cement and other things that we can produce locally?... and leave our youth to continue suffering?” he questioned.
According to the head of state, imposing taxes on imports of such materials and food products from foreign countries will see the local youth get jobs instead.
A 30 per cent tax on all imported building and construction materials, he said, is an effort to boost local manufacturing.
“We have enough youth who have completed their training at polytechnics and TVETs who can help manufacture furniture and that is one way of creating employment opportunities,” he said.
ODM Secretary General Edwin Sifuna wrote a letter to 28 MPs saying they will disciplinary action.
The decision, he said, follows complaints from members of the public.
He gave the legislators 48 hours to respond to show cause why disciplinary action should not be taken.
The controversial Bill sailed through the second reading with 176 MPs supporting it against 81 who opposed it.
Ruto has at the same announced that counties will receive an additional tranche of Sh31 billion this week.
This, he said, is in addition to Sh33 billion disbursed two weeks ago out of the Sh94 billion arrears for the months since April.
"We will try and clear the remaining for June before the end of this financial year because we want the counties to succeed," Ruto said.
