While all this was taking place his chief economic advisor was arrogantly telling Kenyans that they should just put up and shut up since the government had to pay its debt as though it was the citizens individually that solicited and obtained the loans .
In a bizarre twist of double speak the same economist would stand and bemoan a rogue government that was impervious to advice . The economist famously stated that you can advise the government but you cannot force it to act judiciously .
It did not take the hustlers long to realize that their electricity tokens were buying less and less power . The tax mandarins in the treasury with the connivance of the Energy ministry had surreptitiously been increasing taxes on electricity consumption .
Of course , the big industrial power consumers had for a long time been complaining about the high cost of power in Kenya which made it a highcost production country and hence uncompetitive so it was foolhardy to continue taxing power .
The steady exit of international companies escaping a hostile tax and trading environment does not seem to worry the tax tzars as the country is shedding off jobs in thousands as Zakayo shouts on the agora that job creation is his main agenda .
It is not lost to Kenyans that the man that Zakayo entrusted to run the energy ministry was a disgraced professional sacked by the former regime for lackluster performance and questionable ethics . Saved souls in Kenya certainly keep interesting company .
Then Zakayo launched his legacy project , the housing fund , ostensibly to provide affordable housing for Kenyans . By a most extraordinary spin on words this is not supposed to be a tax although it is obligatory and enforceable .
The fact that Kenyans have categorically stated that they consider it a grand scam and that they do not understand how the government can allocate land to build , tax its citizens , yet sell the buildings at market value . Where is the benefit to the taxpayer ?
What was incredible was the government insistence that this was a job creation endeavor even though no one wants it . Those that are currently paying mortgages are livid and those that already have houses are incredulous about being included . It is a scam .
Somebody in the treasury seems to have a twisted sense of humor as they proposed a fifteen percent relief for those paying the housing levy which is not very different to congratulating Zakayo for reducing fuel prices that he raised in the first instance .
Zakayo ’ s insatiable appetite for tax revenue has seen him ferret out strange areas , all in the name of expanding the tax net . The proposal to tax farm produce however seems to have touched on the sensitive raw nerves of Kenyans .
There is a ground swell of discontent in the Mount Kenya region that feels it is being targeted with unreasonable and vexatious taxes . The tax on the avocado fruit seems to summarize their growing frustrations and it is slowly boiling over .
But a tone deaf Zakayo seems to double down and has vowed that he will raise the tax revenue collection from the current fourteen percent of GDP to twenty two percent apparently in line with other East African countries .
The sage who said that there are lies , damned lies and statistics knew that a slavish and academic pondering of numbers has the unfortunate result of distorting reality and the treasury with the help of IMF theorists is turning Kenya into a tax basket case .
The current proposed finance bill has the most inane tax to ever have been suggested in Kenya , the so-called circulation tax . It proposes a tax for simply owning a car as if they are trying to discourage the ownership of cars in a country without a credible public transport system .
Taxes , per se , are never the issue , the issue is what services the government provides to the public in return for the taxes . Spending a billion shillings including a hired two hundred-million-shilling luxury jet to ferry joyriders to the States does not cut it .
Collecting taxes to pay debts does not cut it either especially when Zakayo is busy acquiring new loans at a faster rate than his predecessor . Incidentally we saw the infrastructure the previous loans build , what are the new loans building , could it be castles in paradise ?
It is probable that we could be using the wrong biblical character to refer to Zakayo as perhaps a more apt personage would be Rehoboam , the son of the great
King Solomon who the bible refers to as the wisest king who lived .
For the benefit of those unfamiliar with the bible , King Rehoboam inherited his father ’ s Kingdom and the people of Israel approached him with a request to lower the taxes that his father had put in place .
On second reading , one would realize that King Solomon ’ s grandeur was built on onerous taxes that had forced Israelites into hard labor which made it difficult for most of them to even survive . The people petitioned the King for relief .
Rehoboam , unwisely took the advice of his cabal of advisors , let ’ s call them his theoretical treasury department , and instead of listening to the cries of his subjects instead actually raised the taxes and the bible states that he thereby lost over half his kingdom .
The Limuru III conference and the emergence of the one man , one vote , one shilling campaign are not signs of a country in sync . The vocal group of antigovernment sentiments from within the government is indicative that the rest of the country is quietly restless .
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 .
Our taxes cannot be used to fund the conspicuously extravagant lifestyle for Zakayo ’ s political cronies . Our taxes cannot be used to buy the judiciary and the legislature so that the proverbial check and balance democratic system is rendered useless .
Kenyans are agreeing with the sage that quipped that the only difference between death and taxes is that death doesn ’ t get worse every time parliament meets . The representatives that Kenyans voted into parliament have gone rogue on their voters .