Broad-based gov't will become broad-based dictatorship: Senator Maanzo

On July 24, President Ruto nominated four members of the ODM party, fueling speculation of a perceived alliance between the government and the opposition. Azimio's Raila Odinga has, however, denied a power-sharing deal, insisting the four joined government in their individual capacity. 

Speaking during an interview on Daybreak, Maanzo said that the broad-based government is similar to a broad-based dictatorship whereby all parties align to the government, referencing the one-party state rule under former president Daniel Moi's regime. 

He singled out National Assembly Majority leader Kimani Ichung'wah for using his position to influence decisions in the House. The senator noted that most of the laws passed in parliament are influenced by the majority. 

"We have used the power of thumb, the attitude Ichung'wah has is to rule people by force which is unconstitutional, he is not the law. For a long time the Majority leaders pretended to be the law. The broad-based government is a danger to the country because now, it will become a broad-based dictatorship," Maanzo stated. 

"I've been in Parliament for 12 years. I can assure you there are many illegal laws passed by the majority. There are many laws where public participation is a sham."

The senator, who is also a lawyer, explained that the court's decision to declare the Finance Act 2023 unconstitutional means that the country falls back to the previous Act. 

He advised the government to seal corruption loopholes to ensure effective government operations, pointing out that the majority of revenue collected from taxpayers end up in people's pockets. 

"We must quickly fix this. We must come up with a new Finance Bill. Even on the 2022 Finance Bill, it can be amended sufficiently to run the government for a few days," he said. 

"Unfortunately, even if we have these Finance Acts, we collect a lot of taxes, there's a lot of misuse which is highly wasted so I don't see the country losing much as it is trying to fix this because every financial year, June, July is wasted because there's not a lot in terms of financing then things start picking in September, a little action in October. By December, January, things go down as we prepare for another cycle whereby by June the budget is read."