National Assembly Chief Whip, Silvanus Osoro, has revealed how the Kenya Kwanza administration used uncouth means to arm twist opposition MPs during the Finance Bill, 2023 voting in parliament.
The government mustered numbers to defeat Azimio La Umoja MPs during the passage of the crucial bill that spells out revenue raising measures for the government.
In what may expose trotting bells of betrayal in Azimio, Osoro has claimed that the Kenya Kwanza MPs engineered the absence of opposition lawmakers in the house at the critical moment.
Speaking in Kisii during a United Democratic Alliance(UDA) activation drive, Osoro claimed that the government stopped at nothing to ensure that the bill passed including bribing some opposition lawmakers to skip the crucial sessions.
According to the vocal South Mugirango MP, the ruling coalition gained numerical advantage after some Azimio MPs were given 'soup' to travel abroad or feign sickness.
" I had to find a way, in Bunge I had to look for soup,'' he said of the uncouth and unethical tactics by government in pushing for parliamentary agenda.
The revelations add a new twist to the opposition's defeat in parliament.
"I had to look for ways, by hook or by crook, to get it through, I had to manipulate systems, I looked for ways to get the opposition MPs to play our tune, I conspired with the opposition MPs and got some of them to absent themselves om the House so that I could get the numbers. Some were sponsored to go abroad while others were bribed to feign illness," Osoro claimed.
Outlining the elaborate scheme by the ruling coalition to defeat the opposition, Osoro said that his job as the majority whip would have been on the line had the bill flopped.
"I heard some people saying MPs should have voted 'No', while others said vote 'Yes' to the Finance Bill. Some told me to vote 'No'. Let me ask you, I am the Chief Whip of the Government... the bill that is being debated is that before it is presented in Parliament and before anyone else sets eyes on it, it first comes to my desk. We are the ones who draft these bills," said Osoro.
"If it gets to the floor and is voted down, the position for Osoro is gone. I cannot allow that to happen. If it is voted down, my position as chief whip could be taken away."
The claim puts several Azimio members on the spot for failing to turn up in parliament during voting despite publicly vowing to be on the forefront to shoot the bill down.
Azimio had summoned its 26 members who failed to show up in parliament for disciplinary action with Osoro's revelations expected top give the Raila Odinga-led camp ammunition to deal with them.
The implementation of the Act has been stopped by the High Court following a petition by Busia Senator Okiya Omutatah.
