President William Ruto ’s camp has rejected proposals by MPs from Raila Odinga ’s Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Coalition within the committee going through nearly 1,000 memorandums on proposed tax measures during a retreat in Naivasha, most of it against the provisions.
The National Assembly Finance and Planning Committee—already under strong accusations of being under the microscopic direction of the Executive not to touch a thing in the Finance Bill, 2023—instead wants the opposition MPs to propose amendments on the floor of the House once the report is tabled, a route Azimio sees as the wrong one to take.
It has emerged that President Ruto is only keen on having the committee review 15 per cent tax proposals on creative content.
Interviews with members of the committee, most of whom spoke off record, told Sunday Nation
“The President has made it clear that he wants the Bill to proceed to the next stage with minor changes,” said a Kenya Kwanza MP sitting in the committee.
This comes as ODM leader Raila Odinga and Wiper counterpart Kalonzo Musyoka have hinted at the return of street protests against what they said is the failure by the Kenya Kwanza side to heed calls to review proposed punitive tax measures.
Speaking in separate functions yesterday, the duo said Kenyans are already too burdened by the cost of living and the taxes as is.
President William Ruto during the Kenya Kwanza Parliamentary Group Meeting at State House, Nairobi on May 23, 2023.
Photo credit: PCS
Mr Musyoka was more brutal, saying the only way to go about it is to go back to the streets to protest against the tax measures.
The opposition had sustained one month of weekly protests, before President Ruto called a truce and promised to address the opposition’s key concerns, including lowering the cost of living and reconstituting the electoral commission.
The opposition has since withdrawn from a 14-member bipartisan talks team—seven members from each side—over what they said was insincerity on the part of their Kenya Kwanza Alliance colleagues.
National Assembly Minority Whip Junet Mohamed (Suna East, ODM) yesterday accused President Ruto of refusing to allow for negotiations in settling some of the contested clauses.
“Since I got to Parliament, Finance Bills are the most negotiated Bills. You reach out to people and have a compromise, not forcing things the way this one is being done,” said Mr Mohamed.
He cited the housing levy where he suggested that the government can make it voluntary for one year at a reduced percentage for testing before making it mandatory.
“We can start by 1.5 per cent but on a voluntary basis then after seeing how it works, the government can make it mandatory after the people have seen how it operates. That is how Finance Bills work in this House,” Mr Mohamed said.
Another opposition MP holding a key position in the coalition, who spoke off record, revealed that there is “nothing concrete” on possible amendments based on the briefs the minority side get from its members sitting in the team.
“From the briefs that we have been getting from our members, there is nothing concrete coming from the committee. These committees, I can tell you, are all about the chairperson; if push comes to shove, the chair will have the final say on the report depending on what the executive wants,” said the official.
Azimio leaders led by National Assembly Minority leader Opiyo Wandayi during a press conference at Parliament Buildings on Thursday, June 8, 2023.
Photo credit: Dennis Onsongo | Nation Media Group
He hinted that the coalition is considering instructing its members in the team to write a minority report.
The committee chairman Kimani Kuria (Molo, UDA) has, however, indicated that there is room for amendments in the Bill—but only on the floor of the National Assembly.
“We are going clause by clause, thousands of documents. This is the most debated Bill in the history of this country. This is almost like we are doing a referendum or elections time. But we bear in mind that it is a very aggressive, dynamic Bill because we are looking at expanding our tax base and ensuring we raise revenue,” Mr Kuria said.
“Every Kenyan who spoke to us, we are listening and we are going to include the views, and it’s going to be more than 1,000 pages. Every clause matters. We cannot agree with everybody and we don’t take it for granted.”
Claims of calls to some of the members of the committee have also emerged even as Sunday Nation
Some of the Azimio members sitting in the team said their colleagues from the ruling alliance are non-committal to some of the proposed amendments.
“We are likely to finish today (yesterday), then leave the secretariat to put it together. If they finalise on time, then we will table it on Tuesday but that will depend on the amount of work that will go into it,” the member said.
MP Adipo Okuome (Karachuonyo, ODM), who is a member of the Finance committee and among the team in Naivasha, told Sunday Nation
He went on: “If you force taxes on people, then they will find a way of avoiding paying tax and it is the government that will lose revenue. Investors will also avoid us because of the high cost of doing business.”
Yesterday morning, there was a proposal to zero rate the local sugar and only retain the duty on imported ones in order to protect the local sugar industry.
Some of the members of the committee suggested it be retained at the current eight per cent but others, mostly from Kenya Kwanza, insisted on the proposed 16 per cent.
Kenya Kwanza and Azimio la Umoja bipartisan talks teams led by Rarieda Member of Parliament Otiende Amollo and Tharaka MP George Murugara during a media briefing on the proceedings of the talks at Crowne Plaza Hotel, Upperhill, Nairobi on May 5, 2023.
Photo credit: Wilfred Nyangaresi | Nation Media Group
Further, there was also a push within the team to have the requirement for a mandatory 20 per cent deposit to a court in case of a tax dispute with the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) to be scrapped.
There is also a split in the team on the 7.5 per cent rent income proposal, with some members pushing for its review upwards.
Mr Wandayi said the Bill is flawed beyond redemption going by the widespread rejection it has received from members of the public.
Machakos Deputy Governor Francis Mwangangi said the committee has to balance between the revenue needed to run the government and the hard economic times facing taxpayers.
“It is true the government needs money, it is true Kenyans are facing hard times and it is also true that the county government also needs disbursements but there is a need to balance all those,” said Mr Mwangangi.
National Assembly Deputy Minority Leader Robert Mbui (Kathiani, Wiper) said they ruled out proposing any amendments to the Bill because even if they sail through the House, President Ruto will not assent to the Bill and return it with a memorandum and raising the magic number of 233 members to overturn it will not be possible.
In 2018, the House rejected an eight per cent VAT on petroleum products but former President Uhuru finally had his way when the House failed to veto his memorandum detailing why he had rejected the Finance Bill as initially passed by the House.
Federation of Kenya Employers officials in a recent meeting with President Ruto had reportedly suggested a review of the deduction to two per cent each by the employer and the employee.
