Members of the National Assembly have voted to pass the contentious Finance Bill, 2024., amidst protests across the country.
196 MPs voted to pass the bill as 105 voted against it. 3 MPs votes became spoilt.
A spirited push by a section of opposition MPs to have the final vote on the finance bill conducted electronically was on Tuesday rejected.
This is after National Assembly speaker Moses Wetang'ula ruled that members would vote manually.
According to Wetang'ula, the decision was arrived at following the consultation with the leadership of the House.
“I consulted with your leadership and your leadership preferred that we go manually. We have agreed with the minority and majority leaders and this is how we voted last time” he said.
He further insisted that the mode of voting is at the discretion of the Speaker.
“I would have directed you to vote electronically and we would be done in 15 minutes,” he noted.
“This is not a rally. This is a House of Parliament. The microphone will come to you and I want to repeat if you go beyond no, yes or abstain your vote is invalid, as simple as that,” he ruled.
Suna East MP Junet Mohamed is among those who were rooting for electronic voting.
His efforts to have each member given a microphone also failed.
“The House is full, all members have availed themselves we can’t hear ourselves properly. Mr Speaker we still indulge you to allow us to use the microphone so that we can be heard loud and clear that is yes or no,” he said.
“We are insisting, we are not begging, it is not a favor, don’t joke with us here bwana,” he said.
This was echoed by Rarieda MP Otiende Amolo who pleaded with the Speaker to direct that each member vote publicly and loudly using the microphone.
The voting was conducted after the MPs endorsed the report of the committee of the whole house.
The morning proceedings were chaired by Deputy Speaker Gladys Boss and saw key amendments on contentious clauses introduced including those the Kenya Kwanza MPs agreed to drop.
Voting was by roll-call where the name of the member was called as they shouted a yes or no.