The National Assembly majority leader and Garissa Township member of Parliament Aden Duale was on Thursday 20th 2018 at his best playing tricks to ensure that the 8% VAT Tax proposed by President Uhuru Kenyatta pass.
The majority leader was targeting at ensuring that the 2/3 rule, which adds up to 233 members of parliament who are supposed to vote against the tax is never met.
Duale seemed well prepared as he stood to support the motion citing that the moment 8% VAT tax is passed ERC will do a calculation on how much it will be translated into other sectors of the economy.
Hon. Duale: The moment we pass this 8% ERC will do a calculation on how much it will be translated into other sectors of the economy #FinanceBill2018 pic.twitter.com/Yoh0TDcGt6
— Citizen TV Kenya (@citizentvkenya) September 20, 2018
Drama started when the voting time came and the majority ”Nays” could not be heard since the “Ayes” had everything despite of their small voice.
Duale admitted this as one of the tricks they had to use to ensure that every President Uhuru Kenyatta’s proposal passes as per his wish, and the trick early in the morning saw the passing of the supplementary budget which saw Ksh.35.9bn slashed off the Ksh3 trillion budget.
I will objectively shed light under Article 115 of the constitution. Those voting “Nay” have the obligation to confirm that they add to 233 (being 2⁄3 rds). However, under the same provision and article 122, those voting “Yes” just need to be 26 (Simple Majority). ~ 1/3
— Hon. Aden Duale (@HonAdenDuale) September 20, 2018
In the afternoon, the time for voting or rejecting the 8% VAT tax came and majority leader was already at his best with the tricks.
He started by whipping out a good number of Jubilee members of parliament, which saw reduction of members in the house to 215 which was automatically less the number of members needed to vote out the bill, 233 members.
The “Nays” again had a large voice but since a simple minority of 1/3 which adds up to 26 members was needed to have the bill passed, the “Ayes” had it.
In a voice vote, the only legally known and procedural simple process is to rule that the “Yes” have it so that the “Nays” can vote electronically or by way of being counted (call a roll call vote, popular in the US congress) so that their number of 233 is confirmed. ~ 2/3
— Hon. Aden Duale (@HonAdenDuale) September 20, 2018
Politicians being clever will not agree to do a confirmation vote because:- It produces a physicall list showing who voted; those in “Nays” are not sure they will garner 233. Maneno iko hapo, all the rest ni siasa tupu. ~ 3/3
— Hon. Aden Duale (@HonAdenDuale) September 20, 2018
This trend caused chaos in the parliament, another trick that worked well for Duale as the “Nayes” started shouting at the members who had been whipped out as they came in.
“Wasaliti” was the song being sang at Jubilee members coming from outside as others maintained a song of ” Haki Yetu” as they protested against the Finance bill that had already passed.
This will now see Kenyans suffer most as they will have to dig deep their pockets for them to make the ends meet as gambling, money transactions and telecommunication services will all be taxed.
A 15 % tax on data bundles has been introduced as mobile money transaction tariffs await changes since their tax has been risen from 10% to 20%, with banking services receiving a new 20% tax.