Former Nyeri Town Member of Parliament (MP) Ngunjiri Wambugu has warned that a repeat of the failed Finance Bill of 2024 may be witnessed if members of parliament take the government position without considering the views of citizens.
Speaking during a live TV interview on Thursday, June 5, 2025, Wambugu observed that the MPs play a critical role in midwifing revenue-collection proposals by the executive to ensure that finances are marshalled for development while ensuring citizens are not overly taxed.
“Members of Parliament have a responsibility to come on TV and explain the Finance Bill of 2025. If the MPs do this year what they did last year, Kenyans will be agitated. We already set a precedent of how to reject a Finance Bill,” Wambugu said.
“If the MPs allow the narrative that this Finance Bill is bad to set, Kenyans will do exactly what they did last year. MPs have a responsibility to understand the bill and explain it to the people and government to achieve a win-win situation for everybody.”
Condemns Njeri’s arrest
The former legislator equally criticised the state for arresting software developer Rose Njeri over links to the setting up of an app which directed citizen feedback on the Finance Bill of 2025 to the Clerk of the National Assembly.
“The reason Njeri was arrested is because of the fear that she was getting information out before the members of parliament reveal it or that she might explain it how the government does not want the information explained,” Wambugu noted.
“Njeri is doing her part as a Kenyan; she has a right to take the Finance Bill, interpret it the way she understands it and share her opinion. You cannot arrest her for that.”
Finance Bill 2025
However, former Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) Secretary-General Wilson Sossion remarked that the thought of rejecting the entire Finance Bill was catastrophic.
“To try and think that we can take a position to destroy and bring down this Finance Bill is catastrophic. We must think progressively,” Sossion stated.
While Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi assured Kenyans that there will be no additional taxes in the Finance Bill 2025, the civil society has urged citizens to reject the bill over the proposals to remove zero-rated goods as solar panels, animal feed inputs, electric vehicles and electric bicycles.
The lobby groups say the subjection of these goods to tax will ultimately increase the cost of production of food and essential medicines and put them out of reach for ordinary Kenyans.
