Muturi cancels fuel levy vote results, orders second round

The National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi has ordered for a second round of voting on President Uhuru Kenyatta’s fuel levy after the number of MPs in the House during the first vote was disputed.

Speaker Muturi said the screens in the House showed that there were 352 MPs in the House, which is more than the 349 members.

The Speaker has suspended the sitting for 15 minutes so that the ICT department of Parliament can rectify the anomaly.

FIRST VOTE

The first result had seen MPs endorse the proposal to effect 8 percent VAT on fuel products.

Ruaraka MP TJ Kajwang had earlier accused Majority Leader Aden Duale of leading a walkout of members to cripple the voting on the contentious levy.

The walkout was engineered after those in support realised that those opposed to the memorandum had the numbers to veto the President’s proposals.

After the walkout, the initial headcount showed there were only 215 of them in the House, a number that has since been disputed.

The law requires that at least 233 of the 349 MPs must be in the House before any voting on such matter is done.

But some MPs have contested the outcome and demanded the vote retaken.

Source: https://www.nation.co.ke/