National Assembly Majority Whip Sylvanus Osoro changed tune after a video showing him boasting how he used underhand means to ensure that the Finance Bill 2023 sailed through to become law.
Osoro maintained that he was misquoted, noting that no Member of Parliament was bribed during the Finance Bill 2023 voting at the National Assembly.
The lawmaker who was speaking on Saturday, July 8 at Calib Secondary School in West Pokot County explained that all he did was buying soup for Azimio MPs at the Parliament canteen on the day that voting took place.
“Mimi ndio nasimamia catering ya wabunge wote kule bungeni na nilisema tu niliita wabunge wa opposition nikanunua soup ya malenge na tukakunywa na wao. Sasa nyinyi mlienda mkageuza mkasema nilimaanisha pesa,” Osoro said.
According to the MP, Kenya Kwanza did not use any underhand means and anyone claiming that lawmakers were bribed is only soiling the image of the government and lawmakers.
“The government did not use even a shilling to convince the opposition MPs. They missed the voting. People should stop tainting the names of MPs and the government,” the South Mugirango MP added.
Osoro bragging about giving Azimio MPs soup, arranging trips
Earlier in the week on Thursday, the MP was caught on camera confessing to have used underhand means to ensure that the Bill which was eventually signed into law sailed through.
READ: Mudavadi leads Kenya Kwanza in attacking Judiciary over Finance Act 2023
Among the means he confessed to was getting some Azimio MPs out of the country with some faking illness.
“I had to look for ways to get the Finance Bill through, I had to manipulate systems and look for soup. I conspired with the Azimio MPs and got some of them to absent themselves from the house by going abroad so that I could get the numbers. Others claimed that they were sick and were in hospital.
"I had to find a way, in Bunge I had to look for soup,” Osoro stated in the viral video.
Shortly after the Bill was passed and signed by President William Ruto, The High Court in Kenya issued interim orders suspending its implementation which was scheduled to take effect on July 1