National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichung’wah has admitted that Parliament quietly handed the Finance Bill, 2024, in December 2024, simply months after the lethal anti-finance invoice protests.
Speaking throughout a church service at PCEA Kikuyu on Sunday, June 22, Ichung’wah revealed that the federal government determined to take this step after realising that Kenyans have been hell-bent on believing ‘propaganda’ being unfold on social media in regards to the invoice.
“We tried to enlighten them, however they didn’t hearken to us. Finally, we determined to not go it till individuals cooled down,” he acknowledged.
“For your info, as a result of not many individuals know this, on June 25, we determined to not signal it in. On December 4, 2024, solely 5 months later, every little thing that was within the finance invoice was handed quietly, with none deaths or throwing stones, till 97 per cent of it handed.”
Members of the National Assembly throughout a session on Wednesday, March 12, 2025
Photo
Parliament of Kenya
He additional added that the three per cent rejected have been because of the amendments made earlier than Kenyans began a marketing campaign of “Don’t amend, reject.”
According to the lawmaker, this determination was made as a result of the federal government felt it was in the very best pursuits of Kenyans.
Insisting that Kenyans have been principally lied to, he defined that the controversial perception that the Bill sought to tax diapers and sanitary towels was misconstrued, because the tax was solely meant for imported ones and never these made in Kenya.
This, he defined, might increase Kenyan firms and thus create extra jobs for the younger individuals.
As a results of this, Ichung’wah claimed that the federal government had since collected about Ksh187 billion in tax as of May on the 2024/2025 fiscal 12 months, main the federal government to revive a number of stalled tasks.
The Finance Bill 2024 had been projected to boost Ksh346 billion by June, shedding no less than Ksh160 billion within the interval between June and December when it had not been carried out.
On June 25 final 12 months, a lethal anti-finance invoice protest led by Gen Z put the brakes on the extremely controversial invoice that the MPs had already handed in parliament.
With dozens left useless, President William Ruto finally determined in opposition to assenting to the invoice into regulation, quelling the protests and bringing a short lived calm.
On June 19, 2025, Finance Bill 2025 was handed by Parliament, having acquired rather less opposition than final 12 months’s. The MPs, nevertheless, borrowed a leaf from the earlier 12 months’s protests, selecting to strike off a clause that proposed that the Kenya Revenue Authority entry taxpayers’ monetary accounts.
Kenyans throughout anti-finance invoice protests in Nairobi CBD on June 2024
Reuters
