Silvanus Osoro claim of pumpkin soup to Azimio MPS to skip Finance Bill vote stirs new controversy
South Mugirango MP Silvanus Osoro.
In yet another admission of the unethical means the Kenya Kwanza Alliance used to its advantage in the Finance Bill vote, National Assembly Majority Whip Silvanus Osoro falsely claimed he was in charge of the parliamentary catering committee and that he bought pumpkin soup for opposition MPs.
The Nation has established that the South Mugirango MP is neither the chairperson nor a member of the Members Service and Facilities Committee, which deals with the welfare of MPs, including catering.
The Catering and Health Club Committee no longer exists.
Currently, the Members Service and Facilities Committee is chaired by Dr Stephen Karani Wachira (Laikipia West MP) and the vice-chairperson is Mr Salim Feisal Bader (Msambweni MP). The committee has 13 members and Mr Osoro is not one of them.
As the Majority Whip, Mr Osoro cannot chair any committee in Parliament, but he is a member of the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee and the Select Committee.
The second-time MP did not explain why he targeted opposition MPs only to "buy them soup" in the parliamentary kitchen, where he claimed to be in charge of the catering committee, at a time when a crucial vote was about to take place in the House.
"I am in charge of catering of all these MPs in the Catering Committee in Parliament. I called the opposition MPs, put them at the catering … in the kitchen where our mess is … I bought soup … we drank malenge (pumpkin) soup … MPs drink soup …” said Mr Osoro.
Claiming to be a man of means who has the know-how to stir up and manipulate things to his advantage, the MP had last week claimed he bribed Azimio MPs to absent themselves from Parliament during the vote on the controversial Finance Bill.
The MP made the remarks in West Pokot over the weekend, apparently to outwit his embarrassed Kenya Kwanza leadership and fool the masses.
The new finance law, with its unpopular housing levy, increase in fuel VAT, among other changes that have made the price of commodities skyrocket, was largely unwelcome among Kenyans.
Speaking in his native dialect, Ekegusii, during a United Democratic Alliance (UDA) recruitment drive in Kisii last week, the MP was full of excitement, revealing that he had used "soup" to lure the Azimio MPs to the advantage of the Kenya Kwanza side.
In Ekegusii, soup is a euphemism for bribing someone to do your political bidding.
The Gusii have a way of communicating coded messages, especially when it comes to bribery. For example, if someone says "I gave omosori or esubu" to get through a problem, it means they used a bribe to get their way. "Omosori, esubu" literally means luring someone with soup.
Other code words used are omochere (rice), obosie (flour) and ebichuchu (chickens).
The clip of Mr Osoro's remarks clearly showed him admitting how he used dirty and unethical means to get the Finance Bill passed, but the lawmaker probably hoped that the journalists covering the event would gloss over his shocking revelations, even though he was speaking in public and in front of cameras recording the event live.
Perhaps he assumed that the journalists there, some of whom are local, would not understand his Ekegusii dialect.
The MP said: “I had to look for ways, through hook and crook to make it pass … I had to manipulate systems … I looked for a soup to induce the opposition legislators to play our tune … I conspired with and induced the opposition MPs to have some absent themselves from the House so that I gain the numbers … Some were sponsored to go overseas while others were bribed to feign illness,” claimed Mr Osoro, who bragged that he was very talented at manipulating systems for successful outcomes.
Mr Osoro has proved to be a loose cannon whose recent public outbursts have placed the now beleaguered Kenya Kwanza government in a deeply embarrassing situation.
Kenya is notoriously credited with the dubious distinction of using various names to describe corruption, which has continued to tarnish the government's image in the international community.
For Mr Osoro to boast of bribing elected members of the National Assembly with ‘soup’, oblivious of the serious threat such actions pose to the provisions of Chapter Six of the Constitution, shows the depths to which some leaders have sunk politically, morally and ethically.
After last week's statement about the bribe, the MP made matters worse over the weekend by claiming he had bought 'malenge soup' for opposition MPs, leaving him with egg on his face.
Mr Osoro's allegation, however, put several Azimio coalition members on the spot for failing to show up in Parliament during the vote, despite publicly vowing to be at the forefront of the vote to defeat the Bill, now the Finance Act 2023.
Azimio had summoned its 26 members who did not show up in Parliament for disciplinary action, with Mr Osoro's revelations expected to give the Raila Odinga-led camp ammunition to deal with them.
Rangwe MP Lilian Gogo has already challenged the National Assembly Chief Whip to make public the names of opposition MPs who allegedly took bribes to pass the Finance Bill 2023.
Dr Gogo said Mr Osoro's allegations were very serious and could cause some lawmakers to lose the trust of their constituents.
