It Is All Or Nothing, Mr. Muchuki and Mr. President – Taxation Should Not Target the Poor Majority

Kenya argues that it applies a progressive form of taxation where those with less pay less, and those with more are taxed more, but this is not true if the political class is treated differently.  

I would like to appeal to the president of the republic to Kenya NOT to assent to the financial bill. Mr. President, it is either the government nets all the tax or nothing from the rest of us.  While the conscience of the Acting Finance Minister, John Michuki could not allow him to move the motion to delete the clause that would otherwise authorize the Kenya Revenue Authority to deduct MPs allowance, he seemed fine if someone else did move the motion to strike. In other words, it is fine to ensure the tax from other citizens and the Corporate be deducted as the House decides whether or not they should be taxed and by how much.

The die is not cast, neither is the matter rested. I don’t think Kenyans ought to wait for the Parliamentary Commission to discuss the how to tax the MPs, the Parliamentarians are not first rate Kenyans, therefore the same rules should apply to them.

When the President assented to the salaries increase in 2003, the parliamentarians, supported by the executive (never mind one is made up of a section of the others) argued that with the “proper salary structure” (read amounts) they would ensure that proper taxation is done and that they would avoid having the bulk of the salaries being in form of allowances.

They also argued that MPs should get a development fund hence the Constituency Development Fund.  This would then ensure that the MPs did not have to share his salary with there constituencies.  However, as soon as the two agendas were passed by the parliament, the issue of taxation was forgotten. It took five more years to actually get the government to introduce the taxation proposal.

The MPs argue that they give their “salaries” for burials, weddings.  They forget that we all do give to this events based on our level of influence and the amounts we have! In fact if we were to wait on our MPs for burial and wedding contributions, we might end up having unburied relatives and unwedded couples gauging by the dismal performance.

Mr. Henry Kosgei in his explanation as to why he doesn’t think he should pay taxes to KRA said that he would rather give the money to his constituency since he doesn’t know where the money will go if he gives it to KRA. Then let us apply this logic to ALL Kenyans.  Since we don’t know how KRA will spend the money, let each of us build their own road from our houses, our own hospitals near our homes – this is taking us back to barbaric years! Kenyans actually voted MPs to provide oversight over our finances, to check the government (KRA) and to ensure all our funds are spent in the right manner, how say he doesn’t know how KRA will spend the money? This says a lot of our MPs have no idea why they are in the House!  

At this point it seems we are operating under a Monarchy – where we all leave to serve the bidding of the king and he owns all the properties and people. He owns the land and determines when he wakes up, what new thing he wants ranging from a young virgin to satisfy his needs to a parcel of land, leave alone the fact that it may be a water catchment that would eventually affect many.  Unfortunately now the monarchy has over 200 kings and queens, all waiting to be satisfied. This is unattainable.

Kenyans are saying it either ALL or NOTHING, no taxation to the rest, if the finance bill will not include the taxation clause for the MPs.