Democracy in Action: Empowering Taxpayers to Decide on the Proposed Housing Levy
Our Constitution mandates public participation in governance, democracy, public affairs, and the national and county-level decision-making processes.
Kenyans desired a new constitution that encourages their participation in the country’s governance through democratic, free, and fair elections, devolution of power, and the exercise of authority, as well as in the management of public affairs.
People’s participation is a national value and governance principle that binds all state organs, state/public officers, and all individuals whenever they apply or interpret the Constitution, enact, apply, or interpret any law, or make public policy decisions.
The Constitution mandates public participation in over 18 areas, including the management, protection, and conservation of the environment; the legislative and other business of Parliament and its committees; the exercise of state powers and the making of decisions affecting them; and the administration of urban areas and cities.
Public participation is also required in Kenya’s public finances and its overall social and economic life.
In addition, county governments must ensure and coordinate the participation of communities and locations in local governance and assist them in developing the administrative capacity necessary for the effective exercise of their functions and powers and participation in local governance.
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Ensuring genuine participation ensures more comprehensive information and data, facts, values, and perspectives, which assists national and county governments in making more informed decisions.
When conducted in a meaningful manner, public participation will result in decisions that reflect the public’s interests, concerns, and values in a manner that is more easily implemented and better understood by the public.
It is a repository of long-term solutions that help us overcome enduring differences and misunderstandings. Parliament must guard against excessive arrogance, as this will undoubtedly be its undoing. It must assume a subordinate position and address the concerns of the people.
The issue at hand, requiring employees and employers to pay a 3% monthly levy in addition to PAYE, NHIF, NSSF, and other contributions, as well as VAT and other indirect levies, affects all taxpayers and must not be taken lightly.
Taxpayers are essential to the existence of government, and while paying taxes is a requirement, it must not be coerced. The imposition of a tax will have repercussions.
Nonsequential thought is becoming an epidemic that must be avoided at all costs. Through interest groups and representatives, taxpayers have voiced their opposition to the housing levy, whether or not it represents savings.
The government should listen to Kenyans and not impose altruism upon them. There is undoubtedly a national consensus that workers pay an excessive amount of direct and indirect levies and taxes, and they have made this position crystal clear to the government.
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Meaningful public participation should result in a variety of perspectives and concerns, as well as provide fair treatment, meaningful engagement, and social inclusion for all individuals, regardless of their differences.
The government should strike a balance between these perspectives and concerns. And communicate its decisions to the public in a way that demonstrates how its diverse concerns were considered.
Parliament and the government appear to be growing increasingly distant from the people. And there is a stalemate due to intransigence. This will not end well because every action sets off an endless chain of consequences.
It is said that a donkey can be taken to a river, but it cannot be forced to drink. It is time to soften voters’ hearts and cease chest-thumping politics. The issue requires greater comprehension and appreciation on the part of taxpayers.
We are naturally suspicious, and there are unanswered questions surrounding this tax. Moreover, beauty inspires self-assurance, and taxing wigs and other essential beauty products only adds insult to injury.
Amid the discussion surrounding the Finance Bill, financial scandals proliferate, which does not inspire trust or confidence.
We must separate taxation and levies from a Finance Bill aimed at funding government expenditures. And both Parliament and the government must show respect for their employers, the taxpayers, by listening to them.
Democracy in Action: Empowering Taxpayers to Decide on the Proposed Housing Levy
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