SINCE YOU DON’T WANT GOVERNMENT TO INCREASE TAXES, WE SHALL NOW BORROW MORE, KENYA’S PRESIDENT WILLIAM RUTO TELLS CITIZENS
Kenya’s President William Ruto says the country will have to borrow more to keep the government running following the rejection of a hugely unpopular finance bill that was going to raise more money in taxes.
The president said he would withdraw the bill containing controversial tax hikes last Wednesday after deadly protests which saw parliament set on fire.
But on Sunday he said dropping the bill had set the country back two years, as he explained the difficulty of being unable to raise extra taxes while facing a huge debt burden.
He said this meant Kenya would have to borrow one trillion shillings ($7.6bn; £6.1bn) just “to be able to run our government”.
This is a 67% increase on what had been planned.
But he also said he was considering cuts in spending across government, including in his own office, as well as reducing allocations to the judiciary and the county governments.
Many protesters objected to the tax rises by saying that the extra money would be wasted.
Some time back, I came across an article which said that Kenyan MPs are among the highest paid in the world. I can’t recall the exact figures.
Well, instead of going on a borrowing spree, why not institute some costdaving measures by cutting some of the pecks of the selfish MPs and government officials? Why is it that African leaders love to defraud their brethren by giving themselves extravagant conditions of service?
Here at home, we have such obscene conditions as building a former President, for National Assembly Speaker houses. In addition we have a whole gang of constitutional office holders who are entitled to such lavish conditions as 80% of the incumbent salary and pecks (vehicles, servants, etc).
Just how much is it costing the treasury to support these parasites? And now there is talk of adding the vice president’s to the list. Then there is the case of chiefs for whom we must build palaces and pay monthly salary. Our tax money just disappears into supporting these parasites.
Why can’t they survive by their wits like the rest of us?