Constitution moved taxation from ‘King’ to ‘mama mboga’

Then Jesus said to them: “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” And they were amazed at him. Mark 12:17.

As we near the General Elections, political aspirants including incumbents blame the Government for increment in taxes, prices and national debt. We all join in the frenzy of picking stones to throw at the Government.

All detach themselves from the government which assumes an ethereal setting. Everyone else but this mythical Government renounces and denounces responsibility for what ails us. The truth lies in our Constitution.

Great Revolutions across time have been caused by taxations from above. In the time of Jesus, Romans ruled the then known world. Regional potentates like Herod in Galilee were obligated to collect taxes from the people for onward transmission to Rome. Jews rose up many times in futility to complain about the taxes. In 70 AD, Rome destroyed Jerusalem and scattered the Jews to the winds. It was an extreme end for complaining about taxes.

In the 17th and 18th Centuries, Europe underwent a great revolution in its education systems, wealth and politics. Such great thinkers as Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Voltaire, Rousseau and David Hume awakened in the people's aspiration for participatory politics.

 For long, leadership was reserved to dynastic monarchies and powerful clergy and aristocratic class. Lumpenproletariat, majority of the people were struggling just to survive. These Philosophers made the majority of the people understand that there ought to be a social contract between the governed and the governors.

Centralised leadership

Social contract entailed that the governed surrendered certain rights to those in leadership in consideration for services and development that benefit all. This social contract was based on the foundation that without centralized leadership maintaining law and order across all spheres of life, there will be societal chaos. Before such order, life was bellum omnim contra omnes: war of all against all.

In 18th Century France, the ancienne bourgeoisie felt short-changed by the ruling aristocracy. The taxes kept going up which made the bourgeoisie poorer but the aristocracy richer. Though the bourgeoisie sought reforms without upstaging the scales of power, the commoners hijacked the process that led to the 1789 Revolution. The Revolution laid the seeds for all modern revolutions. At the core of it was that there can’t be taxation without representation.

Our 2010 Constitution has imbued within it, the spirit of the French Revolution. Unlike the previous Constitution, this completely upended the roles of the President and the Voter when it comes to taxation, consumer prices, budgetary allocation and appropriations.

For so long, these were at the discretion and whims of the President with Parliament merely an appendage to the executive. Presidents Jomo Kenyatta, Daniel Arap Moi and Mwai Kibaki were in charge of the pig farm and decided on who gets what part of the pork.  President Uhuru Kenyatta doesn’t have such luxury. He has no pigsty.

The Constitution gives Parliament the exclusive role to impose income tax, value added tax, custom duties and excise taxes. Parliament also prescribes the terms for borrowing by the national government including setting borrowing ceilings. Further Parliament determines allocation of national revenue, appropriation of expenditure funds including development projects.

All this is done through the Budget Estimates and Annual Appropriation Bill and Supplementary Appropriations which the Minister for Finance presents to Parliament for approval and/or amendments.

Therefore, our Constitution as it is, has divested from the President the power on taxation, prices, budgetary allocation, national debt and development. In an ideal situation where MPs are faithful to the Constitution, the Executive will be a rubber stamp of Parliament.

It is political heist when in public rallies, marketplaces, church and funerals, politicians blame the President or Government for rising taxes and prices and for absence of development. This is the role of your MP and Senator.

Kenyan voters need to ask their MP what he has done in Parliament to ameliorate the high taxes and prices. In medieval times, the King was beheaded because he decided on the taxes and prices. In Kenya, it is your MP who decides on prices and taxes and you should demand his head.

Every Election Year since 2013, Kenyans are given an opportunity to elect MPs who understand their Constitutional roles and duties. Yet, each election year, we either re-elect the same MPs or elect fresh ones who continue with the wheel of fortune that enriches them at the expense of the voter.

The voter is brainwashed to believe that his problems are caused by the President. Kenya will only change when Mama Mboga realises that taxation, prices, national debt and development moved to his MP. Whilst before the 1789 French Revolution there was taxation without representation, now in Kenya, the MP ran away with both taxation and representation and left the voter blaming a naked King! A King with a crown but no clothes. The MP ran away with the clothes that held the purse.

What the Kenyan voter requires more than anything else is civic education. But the political class in grand conspiracy has chosen to let Mama Mboga and Boda Boda rider wallow in ignorance. Rousseau said, “when the people shall have nothing more to eat, they will eat the rich.” When Kenyan voter wakes up to the realisation that his MP is the one that actually decides on taxes, prices, national debt and development, it is then that they will burn down Parliament Buildings and abandon delegated representation for direct democracy as it was in Ancient Greece. For now, let MPs have fun, twerk, make merry and money. Mama Mboga and the Boda Boda guy in their ignorance can continue cheering the MP and throwing stones at the President.

Donald B Kipkorir Advocate of the High Court of Kenya; [email protected]