How Devolution Has Become a Burden For Kenyans: Crazy Taxes That Show Our Leadership Has Lost It

When the new constitution was promulgated and came into force, Kenyans celebrated. They knew that a new dawn had come. They knew that the proverbial ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ had finally come to them.

One outstanding feature in the constitution was the birth of devolution. Devolution was born and Kenyans received with singing and dancing. At long last, there were going to have ‘power into their hands.’

To most Kenyans, devolution was meant to create jobs for thousands of jobless young men and women in various counties, bring resources from the ‘traditional Nairobi,” the House on the Hill, to the people on the ground in ‘mashinani.’

Little did Kenyans know that their hope and anticipation was just mirage and hallucinations, which would soon fade away for as soon as devolution kicked off.

With devolution, corruption was devolved. Tribalism was spread almost equally among the 47 counties. Devolution, instead of empowering the people on the ground, started creating small gods in the name of County Governors, Members of County Assemblies among others who conspired to loot and squeeze the taxpayer to the root.

READ: Dear Looters: You Have Eaten Everything, Please Don’t Eat Us

When the Cabinet Secretary in charge of Treasury read the national budget to the nation, many Kenyans expected a sigh of relief in form of the easing cost of living, reduction in form of taxes as well as more avenues for job creation.

Instead, it was the opposite. The government imposed various taxes on them. For instance, the tax charged on mobile money transactions was increased from 10 percent to 12 percent. The new tariffs have already been implemented.

Goods such as liquid petroleum gas (LPG), bottled water, fish processors, raw materials used in hospital clothing and pharmaceutical manufacturing, milk, maize flour shifted from being zero rating to VAT exempt.

The excise duty on kerosene went up by 3.1 shillings per liter, a pinch that more than 60 percent of households in Kenya will live to feel. Also, petroleum products are set to start attracting 16 percent VAT.

READ: How Kenyans Will Be Choked to Death if the New Taxes are Implemented

Kenyans are not spared at the county level either. Kenyans in various counties are in for the shock of the year this financial year following crazy, imaginary and exorbitant taxes and revenues proposed by different county governments

This is not to mention that Kenyans are already choking with the high cost of living, high taxes including the ‘Robin Hood’ tax which many Kenyans in ‘mashinani’ thought it was a tax charged on movies. Interesting. Right?

The article published in the Standard Newspaper on Tuesday about the taxes and revenues in various counties brought to the surface a well-calculated move by some county government to squeeze a coin out of Kenyans no matter what.

Can you imagine paying 100 shillings just to take a selfie? How is this even possible? Apparently, according to the County Government of Makueni, this is possible. Those in Makueni, if you are one of those individuals addicted to taking selfies in public, better start walking around with some cash coz the big brother will be on your trail.

Still in Makueni, one will have to pay 1,000 shilling to get a permit to entertain his/her audience in a single night (musicians), also, local film operators will have to pay 1,500 shillings per day to be allowed to operate. This is not to mention that they also have to pay to the Kenya Films and Control Board (KFCB). Casinos in the same county will have to pay 30,000 shillings per month in order to operate.

Let us have some facts here. 400,000 SMEs die annually in this country because of the hard and complicated business environment. 80 percent of these businesses die before their second birthday. One of the major reasons why SMEs are withering away is poor government policies, inadequate funding and lack of innovation in the sector. Lest we forget, the SME sector is what generates 86 percent of the employment force in this country. Now, instead of a county governments thinking of ways on how to help small businesses grow, they are plotting to choke them to death.

Now, think of this, paying 8,000 shillings for selling nyama choma or mutura with those in the rural areas paying 5,000 shillings as ‘license fee’. And, what about paying 2 shillings to the county government every time you want to slaughter your own chicken or rabbit? You think that is enough? Have you thought about paying 2,000 shillings to keep a donkey? And what of paying 2,000 to have a poultry or fish stall? What about paying 8,000 shillings to have a crusade? Interesting. Right? But in Nyeri County, this has to be done because the ‘big boss’ has to eat and the common man has nothing to smile about.

READ: The Cost of Devolution From a National Perspective: Here is Where your Taxes are Going

In Siaya County, the revenue proposal is even crazier. Street preachers will pay 20,000 shillings upfront per day in order to use the lawns maintained by the county government. Lunchtime preachers will have to part with 1,000 shillings per hour. In the same county, to exhume a body, the family will have to part with 50,000 shillings for an adult, 30,000 shillings for a child and 20,000 shillings for an infant. Making lots of cash out of the dead. Right? This is not to mention what private car owners, hawkers and other businesses will be made to pay.

In Murang’a those who sell mutura and sausages will have to pay 30 shillings from the normal 20 shillings. In Busia County, apparently, members of the Budget Appropriation Committee demanded to be paid 1.5 million shillings each before they could approve the budget estimates meant to ‘benefit’ their own people.

Dear Kenyans, we do not have leaders, we have hyenas.