This time round Baba seems bent on again selling his birthright for a position in that moribund institution that is called the African Union that the African nations cannot fund themselves . The puppet institution sings to the tune of the financial puppeteer .
It is actually laughable to imagine that the chief culprit in the theft on the election victory should become the chief campaigner for the loser to get an ego boosting post in an organization that is full of hot air .
Of course , Ochieng is aware that currently Kenyans would rather discuss another bible character , Zakayo , whose antics in the bible as a repentant tax collector , a metaphor for a sinner , has become the symbol of hope for all wrongdoers .
Again , for the sake of those who may not know the story , Zakayo , a very unpopular tax collector in the good book saw the light and wished to see the master . Being short of stature he climbed up a tree where he would catch a glimpse of Jesus as he passed by .
Jesus , on passing under the tree , called out Zakayo ’ s name and informed him that he would dine in his house that very evening thereby redeeming a hated individual and in penance Zakayo gave half his wealth to the poor and repaid four times those he had defrauded .
The twist in the Kenyan situation is that Zakayo , is already a follower of Jesus and supposedly a beloved leader of the people and hence his inexplicable behavior where he has vowed to oppress the masses with ever increasing taxes .
The last word is that we are not aware of any country that has been taxed to prosperity and the government perhaps needs to curb its grandiose lifestyle . Kenyans cannot be expected to tighten their belt and live within their means while others are having caviar for lunch .
Bear in mind that Zakayo , during his long and consistent campaign against his then boss , maligned and castigated the then president for unfairly taxing Kenyans and promised that under his leadership no such extortion would happen , after all he was a Christian .
No sooner had he ascended to the position than he began a smear campaign claiming together with his running mate , now the coleader , to the effect that they inherited empty coffers and were laden with onerous debts due to theft of state resources .
Oddly enough , now that they had the instruments of power and they freely named the perpetrators of the grand larceny , no charges have ever been preferred against them while the pending cases of their loyalists were miraculously dropped with joyful hallelujahs .
Zakayo early shock to his ardent followers was when he cheekily introduced the infamous hustler fund which the hustlers realized was just another Fuliza owned by the government which was more than willing to offer a paltry five hundred shillings to start a business .
These are the same hustlers that had helped him to topple the mythical dynasties with the lofty promise that the common wananchi would form the next government . They were not even invited to the inauguration and watched their great achievement on TV .
Then the rain started to beat on the hustlers in earnest when Zakayo trained his keen eye on the operations of the citizens and decided to not only double the VAT tax on fuel but also removed the lifesaving subsidies , telling Kenyans to live within their means .
The result was that the pump prices skyrocketed and crossed the two hundred mark and his cynical lieutenants even informed Kenyans to brace for a three-hundred-shilling price tag for fuel . Kenyans were disheartened and disillusioned .
Ochieng believes that the only reason the thugs in government did not carry out that threat was the fact that the collective devastation that the price hike created for Kenyans made them quite ready to revolt , the now nostalgic Baba ’ s demos were just a preview .
In the meantime , the knock-on effect of this ill-advised tax on the economy was an inflationary spiral of prices as the transport sector is a fundamental driver of the country ’ s economy . Disposable income was vanishing hence no real spending power .
Someone with a pretty good pulse on the ground must have informed Zakayo that the Kenyan tax mule could not haul that particular burden and they regrouped to find a different area where they could fleece Kenyans with plausible excuses .