•Onyoka explained that there are issues that the President is handling and ought to get views from the public before putting them into action.
•He said Kenyans should start learning to analyze their candidates based on the manifesto.
Image: FILE
Kisii Senator Richard Onyonka has urged Kenyans to support President William Ruto's wants on the Finance Bill, 2023.
Speaking on Tuesday in an interview at a local Tv station, he said that Kenyans should give into the demands of the leader they elected to the presidency.
"As the opposition, we wish Kenyans would give President Ruto what he wants because they elected him," Onyoka said.
The Senator further noted that Kenyans should start learning to analyse their candidates based on the manifesto.
"Let him increase the tax to 100 percent. Kenyans are complaining, but they need to understand that choices have consequences," Onyoka said.
Onyoka said that in Azimio they had reservations about the Kenya Kwanza manifesto and knew that Ruto would change his tune once elected.
"What Ruto said while campaigning and what is happening now is the opposite," he said.
The proposed Finance Bill, 2023 has triggered a storm in the country with hundreds of petitions being sent to Parliament to oppose it.
Among institutions that have opposed it include Law Society of Kenya, Kenya Association of Manufacturers, Federation of Kenya Employers, Civil Servants’ unions, Kenya Private Sector Alliance, and Institute of Economic Affairs.
The proposed law, among others, increases the National Hospital Insurance Fund and National Social Security Fund contribution, especially for high earners.
Ruto described his proposed tax laws as the panacea to the country's youth unemployment and went to great lengths to explain why ordinary Kenyans stand to benefit.
The controversial proposals have triggered political heat with the opposition promising a protracted political battle with the state if Kenya Kwanza marshals its troops in Parliament to push through the laws.
Speaking in Busia County on Sunday, Ruto maintained the Finance Bill 2023 was developed with his development blueprint of the “bottom-up economic” model in mind.
“I am not mad, I know what I am saying and I am a teetotaler... My first assignment, I promised ordinary Kenyans, hustlers that this time round we shall uplift those at the bottom of the economic pyramid,” he emphasised.