Kathiani Member of Parliament (MP) Robert Mbui has opined that Kenyan MPs have proven to be gullible after the recent events witnessed in the nation over the Bills that have been shot down by President William Ruto.
According to the legislator, MPs can be easily swayed by the President’s choice on a matter, failing the electorate by misrepresenting them in Parliament.
Mbui noted that the Finance Bill, for example, was fully supported by all MPs but they quickly changed their tune when Ruto rejected it following a public uproar.
“We went ahead and passed the Finance Bill immediately after Parliament was occupied he realised it’s not business as usual he called MPs to State House and then withdrew (the Bill) and all of them were cheering him and it was shocking,” he said while speaking to Citizen TV on Monday.
He further cited the recently withdrawn controversial Adani deal which saw legislators backing it, despite a lack of transparency.
Mbui said that Parliament similarly lauded President Ruto when he pulled the plug on the deal, showing a deficiency in MPs on having a coherent stance.
“I think he has exposed Parliament for what it is. Unfortunately, most of our members are unable to make decisions on the basis of the fact that they were elected to represent the people and instead, they do what the Executive wants,” added Mbui.
While giving his State of the Nation address on Thursday, President Ruto said the decision to cancel the Adani deal was attributed to credible evidence from the relevant agencies that the contractor does not have a clean track record.
The United States government charged Gautam Adani, chair of Indian conglomerate Adani Group for allegedly paying Ksh.30 billion in bribes to the Indian government to obtain solar energy supply contracts.
In their pact with Kenya, Adani had proposed a Ksh.260 billion deal to renovate the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) for a 30-year period and provide Ksh.95 billion to develop the country’s transmission lines, all under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) model.
This had sparked uproar among Kenyans concerning the vagueness of the deal as many smelt a rat, claiming it will be another conduit for corruption.
By Citizen Digital