Kenya dispatch: controversial finance bill nears parliamentary passage amid protests and questions Dispatches
Parliament of Kenya, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
Kenya dispatch: controversial finance bill nears parliamentary passage amid protests and questions

Aynsley Genga is a JURIST Staff Correspondent in Kenya.

For quite some time now, there has been one major issue that has been plaguing the minds of many Kenyans. That issue is the proposed Finance Bill, 2023, that President Ruto and his supporters want to legislate. I cannot remember the last time a bill was met with so much hatred and controversy like the Finance bill. It has been nearly two months and all Kenyans have been discussing is the Finance Bill and how disastrous it is. The bill does not take into account the current economic state of Kenyans at all. The government says that the increase of taxation levies introduced by the proposed bill will not only help take care of our debt crisis but also help build the nation. However, the question still remains, how can one build a nation at the cost of your own citizens starving and being left homeless? The economy is terrible as it is, and the government is already borrowing 25 billion Kenyan shillings(ksh), and we do not even see where this borrowed money is being used since there is no major sign of development in the country. In fact, most of the time we just see our leaders buying new cars and leaving lavishly while still maintaining that the country is in serious trouble.

Last week, the Finance Bill moved to the second reading stage of the law-making process. This was after hundreds of people swarmed parliament to reject the bill. We have also had organizations like the Anglican Church of Kenya and the Kenya Airlines Pilots Association that have come out to reject the bill. Moreover, we have also had members of parliament (MPs) coming out to reject the bill, both those in opposition as well as those in the ruling party (Kenya Kwanza). However, after President Ruto threatened that those in his party who fail to support his Bill will not receive the funding needed to develop their counties, his party members who were against the Bill have all gone silent. I find these threats quite ironic. After all, Ruto has on numerous occasions declared that he is a man of the people and will not let his people suffer and yet has publicly declared that he is willing to make people suffer simply because they do not support his ideologies. One would almost think we are a dictatorial nation rather than a democratic nation. Ever since the President’s threats, nobody really knows how parliament will vote.

If the Finance Bill is passed, everything imaginable will be taxed. It will range from taxing vehicle owners depending on the number of seats in their cars, taxing cosmetics products, to taxing social influencers and content creators, increase of taxation on petroleum products, taxing agricultural products and taxing mobile phone products. Even hustler businesses (basically businesses that make 1,370 sales per day) will be taxed annually. Then there is also the addition of the compulsory housing levy, that the government claims is to help create houses for everyone in the country. Nonetheless, people have been very skeptical regarding the housing levy and many are asking questions- ” Where are the houses going to be built? How will the government determine who gets a house and who does not, since they claim they will only build 100 houses per county and yet our population is nearing 60 million? Why is the housing levy compulsory and yet some people already have their own houses or are in the process of building their own homes?” These questions have been asked numerous times by the public and time and time again the government has failed to give suitable answers that can lay the people’s worries to rest.

The taxation levies do not end there. We still have the double tax that will be placed on a husband in order to cover for his working wife, we also have the taxation levies that the government wants to introduce on inherited land (basically one cannot access their inheritance without first paying the required tax fee) and we also have the tax levies that government seeks to place on damages earned from civil claims. The saddest part is that despite all these taxation levies that I have listed, I have barely even scratched the surface of everything the government plans to tax if the Finance Bill does come into force.

Despite all these tax increments that the government is set on introducing, it is quite preposterous how the government has decided to lower the tax levies for air craft owners. The government plans to scrap off the 16% VAT on aircrafts and choppers. Many have been left appalled  by this decision because honestly speaking, out of all things the government could have lowered the tax rate on, it just had to be something that less than 1% of the public even use. I guess it just as how the current Governor for Siaya County once said:

“Sometimes revolutions eat their own children… governments eat their own people. This government is going to punish you more than they will punish me.”

I am therefore of the opinion, if this Bill is passed then it is quite clear that government does not care about its people. After all, they plan to increase taxation on everything and yet the only people who are confirmed to get a salary increase is the president and his deputy. The president has spoken of policies that he aims to implement which will according to him, set equal pay for public and private sectors. Whether this will actually happen is a question up for debate since the government has already told civil servants to be prepared because they may be forced to experienced salary delays this year.

 

As it stands, many Kenyans have been saying they are just waiting for Raila (Azimio head and the current Opposition Leader) to bring back the Monday and Thursday Demonstrations. We have had doctors and even civil servants already conducting their own demonstrations. Moreover, there have been whispers going around that the military should just take control of the government while others are saying that we should just secede, since surviving with the current government will be impossible. There has also been an increase in the number of students who are hoping to get jobs or get scholarships abroad in order to escape this country. Even investors are running away from Kenya. The situation is growing more tense and miserable with each day as many Kenyans are getting more and more frustrated as they feel that their voices are not being heard.

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