John Mbadi: We don’t need a Finance Bill

By Peter Ochieng

Cabinet Secretary (CS) nominee for Finance John Mbadi has told Kenyans that the country does not need a Finance Bill in place, to ensure the government's smooth operations.

The former ODM party national Chairman addressing members of the National Assembly’s Appointments Committee during his vetting on Saturday, said the government has numerous options at its disposal as far as revue collection is concerned.

President William Ruto withdrew the Finance Bill, 2024 in its entirety, after Kenyans turned against it, terming it punitive. The nominee however said that proposals within the Bill that were not contested, can still be brought back to the House for legislation.

“On the Finance Bill that has been lost, I want to tell Kenyans, please don’t panic. Let us stop making Kenyans panic. In the 10th and 11th Parliament, the Finance Bill used to be passed in September. We used to have three months into the financial year to pass the Finance Bill,” said Mbadi.

Concerning the Finance Bill, 2023 which has since been declared unconstitutional by the Court of Appeal, he said:

“The Finance Act 2023 has been declared unconstitutional, although that has been appealed. Still, we don’t have a lacuna. In fact, Finance Bill is an omnibus Amendment Bill, we have about five or six legislations that Finance Bill usually amends; we have Excise Duty, Import Duty, Value Added Tax, Income Tax, Tax Procedures Act, and fees and levies,” he said.

He said that if approved, he will need MPs to assist him revive the non-contentious clauses, which can help grow Kenya’s economy.

“We don’t have to have a Finance Bill, but I’ll seek guidance from the Attorney General. But I believe the good provisions which have been lost by this Bill, which are not contentious, and they’re many which can still help grow this country’s economy, we can bring them as specific amendments to those Acts with proper public participation. I think the problem we had was that the public felt there was no proper public participation, which we had, but maybe they felt they were not listened to.”

Mbadi said if approved, it will not be business as usual at the treasury. “I am going to disturb the status quo at the treasury. I am sure the president did not appoint me to continue with business as usual at the treasury, because then there would be no need to make changes. I have an assignment to do.”

If approved, Mbadi will take over from Professor Njuguna Ndung’u.