𝗡𝗘𝗪 𝗬𝗘𝗔𝗥 𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗧𝗘𝗠𝗘𝗡𝗧 𝗕𝗬 𝗥𝗧. 𝗛𝗢𝗡. 𝗥𝗔𝗜𝗟𝗔 𝗢𝗗𝗜𝗡𝗚𝗔
Dear Kenyans,
The year 2023 has ended the way it started; with difficulties that include the highest cost of living and levels of taxation never witnessed in our 60 year history as a country. Given the circumstances we find ourselves in, we have a responsibility to speak to you with the candor and honesty which the present situation of our Nation requires.
These times require us to speak the truth, the whole truth, honestly, candidly and boldly. We emphasize truth and honesty because these two have died in the current administration. There was a time when the government’s word counted and wananchi did not have to doubt. Today, Kenyans have to cross check and double check whatever the government says because the Kenya Kwanza regime has made lying a tool for governing. We are in distress as we cross into the New Year.
The distress is unraveling uncomfortably and uncontrollably. The government is fueling it but has no plan for containing it. We have many issues we look forward to canvassing in the New Year. For today; we beg to focus our attention on three: Education, Taxation and Corruption.
𝟭. 𝗘𝗗𝗨𝗖𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡
In a week’s time, schools will open. But they are in a mess. Since the National Rainbow Coalition regime of 2002, Kenya has pursued a policy of Free and Compulsory basic education. By and large, money has followed learners.
That dedicated support for free and compulsory education has stopped under Kenya Kwanza. It is happening unannounced. The government is supposed to send Ksh22, 440 per student per year to secondary schools. It is also supposed to send Sh1200 per year for every primary school pupil.
But secondary schools got only Ksh12, 000 in 2023. The whereabouts of the other half of the money is unknown. Monies long released by the National Treasury are disappearing at the Ministry of Education while children and teachers suffer. Schools have huge pending bills. Head teachers have no money for maintenance, payment of non-teaching staff and purchase of equipment. Even feeding children in boarding schools is a headache. It is a direct result of inefficiency, corruption and nepotism at the Ministry of Education.
As a party, we have tasked our MPs push and we also plan to go to court to force the Ministry of Education to release full capitation to schools, both primary and secondary so that schools can start the year smoothly. Why would a government deny a primary school child her Sh1200 in a year?
We also want the Exchequer and HELB to release loans to university students. The same must apply to TVET institutions and TTCs which have now resorted to charging parents exorbitantly. As this happens, the corrupt are taking their children to private schools.
We also demand that Universities Funding Board releases scholarship money to students who are unable to pay fees. The same money will enable Universities to run. Money must flow to our learning institutions as stipulated by the law. We also want the government to keep its word and absorb the
JSS teachers who have served as interns for one year and were promised to transit to Permanent and Pensionable status but are now being told to serve as interns for another year.
We will not allow the government to play with the future of the children. We will also be seeking audience with Education ministry on the whereabouts of the half of the capitation money. We believe some of this money is going to fictitious schools that have been created for purposes of embezzlement.
We have information that some officers at the Ministry are not only creating fictitious schools but are also interfering with the National Education Management Information System (NEMIS) data provided by teachers to inflate or decrease student numbers and create non-existent schools to which money is sent.
𝟮. 𝗧𝗔𝗫𝗘𝗦 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗨𝗟𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗛𝗜𝗚𝗛 𝗖𝗢𝗦𝗧 𝗢𝗙 𝗟𝗜𝗩𝗜𝗡𝗚
Kenyan families continue to struggle with record-high price inflation, with the price of groceries, petroleum products, and other essentials out of control as a result of taxes. Taxes are consuming close to half of earnings by people and businesses.
The administration cares nothing about the financial wellbeing of Kenyan families and businesses. We will form a broad-based anti-tax campaign to pursue, through different avenues and methods, budget cuts that would allow Kenyans to keep much more of their hard-earned money.
We are going to press for a taxation plan that provides for an across-the-board income tax rate reduction for all Kenyans who pay income taxes. We will task our lawmakers to reject any proposal to establish new taxes on anything. Through different avenues, we will also continue to fight the old taxes that came into force last July.
This is the period that has seen the highest rate of tax on salaries from 30 per cent to 35 per cent, a new 1.5 per cent housing tax, a 2.75 percent hospital insurance fund levy, a 3 per cent turnover (gross sales) tax on small businesses and a doubling of taxes on fuel to 16 per cent, among others. We are going to fight these taxes on multiple fronts. Over this holiday season, along our celebrated tourist circuit, hotels, lodges and resorts have reported exceptionally low bookings, thanks to a depressed economy and repressive taxes.
We will also institute measures to repeal the policy of taxing remittance flows from the diaspora because it is a bad idea. Other than amounting to double taxation, it also punishes those who went abroad simply because Kenya could not provide for them.
𝟯. 𝗖𝗢𝗥𝗥𝗨𝗣𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡
Behind all the pain that have befallen Kenyans under the Kenya Kwanza regime is corruption. The old and primitive form of corruption is back; domiciled at key institutions like the Kenya National Trading Corporation, the Ministries of Energy and Petroleum, the National Treasury, Health and Education. It is spreading.
Apart from lies, the dangerous thing which has come with Kenya Kwanza is the normalization of corruption. There is implicit and explicit idea that corruption is okay in governance. People who had corruption cases have been appointed to key government positions before having their cases systematically dropped. This approach to managing Kenya is extremely dangerous because it also normalizes the idea that public service is where one goes to get rich.
This has undermined Kenya’s capacity to deliver health, security, water, electricity and other basic services. It is killing the private sector. Foreign companies are fleeing and local ones are downsizing. The majority of the private sector are the so-called ‘hustlers’ who are currently being robbed and taxed into poverty. And the majority of hustlers are young people. The Kenya Kwanza government has gone to war against the future, against the young. The young people who were told bottom up policies would dismantle the dynasties now realize they are being forced to participate in the creation of a new dynasty.
As Kenyans go through the worst time in their lives, the corrupt in government say it has never been this good. They are having the best time of their lives. We are reaching out to civil society organizations and our citizens to form a strong coalition to smoke out corruption and force the corrupt out of office through the justice system and other legal means.
In this New Year, we shall organize to liberate ourselves from oppression and exploitation. We shall exercise our sovereign power of the people to stop death and suffering of the people and restore our dignity and wellbeing. We shall work with all people of goodwill to restore hope and faith in our nation.
We are willing to build a coalition of citizens who are willing to plan, mobilize, and organize effectively to reclaim and take back our nation. When that time comes, we expect all Kenyans to set aside their differences and engage in actions to restore dignity to livelihoods.
The Kenya Kwanza regime has clearly become a curse upon the nation. Let us join hands and stop this regime from ruining our beloved land and our pride and dignity as citizens.
𝗥𝗧. 𝗛𝗢𝗡. 𝗥𝗔𝗜𝗟𝗔 𝗢𝗗𝗜𝗡𝗚𝗔, 𝗘𝗚𝗛
