Kenyans Demand on the Internet that Ruto and MPs Reject the Finance Bill 2024

Kenyans are on an unprecedented campaign blitz to force their MPs to reject the Finance Bill outright, calling it draconian, as the bill’s D-Day draws near.

Influential X personality Amerix created the hashtag #RespectMyHustle on X, where the protests gained significant traction. He encouraged Kenyans to take active action by calling their individual Members of Parliament and requesting that they vote against the measure.
“The tax man receives 60% of your income,” he tweeted. For whom are you employed? You are employed by the government. You have servitude. Say no to being a slave. Now grab a phone and give your member of parliament a call. Reject The Finance Bill, tell him. Put their numbers here.
Amerix took the lead by releasing a list of the legislators’ phone numbers. He then urged his supporters and Kenyans in general to bravely share more phone numbers and convey the message directly to the MPs’ houses.

Things quickly heated up, more individuals jumped on the bandwagon, more phone numbers were released, and by the end of the day, the fad was taking off.
For example, Amerix shared the number of Kiharu Member of Parliament Ndindi Nyoro and encouraged Kenyans to call, text, and spam him to oppose the measure and defend the people of Kiharu.
Make a call to Kiharu Constituency MP Mr. Ndindi Nyoro. Send him a ton of SMS and calls urging him to reject the financing measure. Tell him again that he was chosen to speak for Kiharu. He tweeted, “Kiharu have the right to contact, text, remind, and recall their MP.”
Soon, more phone numbers were made available to the public. Many others, including Dan Wanyama, Reuben Kiborek, John Paul Mwirigi, Kimani Ichungwa, Jessica Mbalu, Wambugu Maina, Mohammed Tubi, Peter Salaysa, Patrick Simiyu, and Silvanus Osoro.
Wesley Kibande, the X personality, was the only one to post over thirty phone numbers, and hundreds more people flooded the comment area with even more numbers.
Make a call to them! Send them a text! Send them unsolicited messages! Keep them from falling asleep! Destroy their phones! They must represent us, as that is what they were voted to do! It’s either now or never.” Karen Ngari, an X user, tweeted.
Screenshots of text messages sent by other Kenyans to their respective members of Parliament were widely circulated. Some even sent President William Ruto a bold text.
Apparently, a few MPs have already seemed to be feeling the heat from Amerix’s tweets, or their constituents have been calling them constantly.

Ledama Olekina, a senator from Narok, reacted to a tweet from Amerix by saying, “It’s time!”
Rep. Amos Mwago of Starehe, for his part, stated, “Good morning… tukifika hapo kwa finance bill voting, sitawangusha.” Mambo ni hakuna kudanganyana live, life.”
Peter Salaysa, the MP for Mumias East, also verified that he was receiving a lot of phone calls from Kenyans, some of whom even sent him small sums of cash to verify the legitimacy of the number.
“On @x, who has shared my number? Everyone in the country is messaging, WhatsApping, and phoning me at my number. I’m having trouble sleeping since my phone keeps vibrating. I’ve rejected the financial bill and am checking to make sure it’s me. Tomorrow is not our election day,” he tweeted.
The National Treasury came out on Tuesday, June 11, to defend the proposed tax measures in the Finance Bill, claiming that the enormous national debt had influenced the decision to enact new taxes.
In his appearance before the Finance and Planning committee, Treasury Principal Secretary Chris Kiptoo stated that the nation was facing a Ksh11 trillion debt.
“The huge public debt informs the tax measures we are taking, we feel we need to raise our revenues rather than relying on debt to finance our budget,” said Kiptoo.
He said, “I urge the Committee Members to favorably consider all the proposed provisions in the Finance Bill, 2024, considering the need to mobilize sufficient revenue to stabilize our debt.”