Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga has urged President William Ruto’s government to lower taxes for Kenyans and seal all revenue leakages.
He said the national government has a responsibility to reduce the tax burden, seal revenue leakages before squeezing already heavily burdened citizens further.
“Kenyans should not continue to shoulder the weight of more taxes in this strained economy. The government should not punish its citizens by introducing more taxes, but instead seal all revenue leakages,” said Mr Odinga.
He has, however, asked Kenyans to give his Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) members who serve in the government time to revolutionise the economy, saying his team has not spent even a year in the office.
“We are in the final stage of budget making and the first budget by Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi will be ready next month and will consider what Kenyans want. Let us give the experts time to revolutionize the economy,” said Mr Odinga.
ODM ‘experts’ that joined Cabinet include John Mbadi (National Treasury), Opiyo Wandayi (Energy), Hassan Joho (Mining), Wycliffe Oparanya (Cooperatives) and Beatrice Askul (East African Community and Regional Integration).
At the same time, Mr Odinga has called for the arrest and prosecution of corrupt governors, even as he vouched for additional funding to county governments.
Speaking during the 42nd Institute of Certified Accountants of Kenya (ICPAK) annual conference in Mombasa, Mr Odinga reiterated that the National Government Constituencies Development Fund (NG-CDF) and Roads Levy should be devolved as per the Constitution but governors must be held accountable.
He advised accountants to be on the frontline to call out corrupt government officials in national, county and other departments.
“Accountants interact with all the financial documents and they should be the first to call out corrupt leaders. I am calling for more funds to the counties by adding 2.5 per cent of the total budget of NG-CDF to counties, but also corrupt governors should not be spared, they should be arrested and charged,” said Mr Odinga.
Mr Odinga said NG-CDF and roads funds should be left to the County governments because the law specifies on what is under the counties constitutionally.
He explained that it is illogical when, for instance, a road in Mombasa is managed by the Kenya Urban Roads Authority (Kura) offices in Nairobi or a road in a village is funded by the Kura headquarters without involvement of the area governor.
Concerning the debate on NG-CDF, the former prime minister dared the Members of the National Assembly to bring the contentious issue as a Constitution amendment as they intend, saying any attempts to force constitutional change through questionable processes would eventually hit a wall.
“Members of Parliament should be doing three things; representation, legislation, and oversight. How do you oversight the national government when you’re also implementing projects?
“Do all the public participation you want. But ultimately, you must go to a referendum. And if there is one, you will lose,” said Mr Odinga.
During the conference, Molo MP Kimani Kuria differed with Mr Odinga concerning the NG-CDF matter.
According to the MP, governors have failed to account for the money allocated to them, and NG-CDF funds should only be devolved once structures are put in place to avoid misuse of such funds.
“We have no problem devolving more funds, all are taxpayers' money, but if the counties have failed to demonstrate what the Sh385 billion allocated to them has done, why allocate them more money?” he asked.
ICPAK CEO Grace Kamau called for professionalism in the sector, saying accountants must be vigilant as they adopt technology, which is quickly replacing traditional accounting systems.
“We have been asking ourselves how Artificial Intelligence (AI) and other modern technologies will help us in dealing with our huge data. But we must be cautious, considering this comes with challenges such as issues of data protection and cybersecurity,” said Ms Kamau.
