Kenyan MPs Blackmail Government Over Plans To Tax Them

It was another sad day for Kenyans.

Kenyan Members of Parliament boxed the coalition government into a corner when they dilly-dallied in passing the government budget for the period 2008/9. The reason for this was the inclusion in the current budget to tax the MPs on allowances totaling to almost Ksh 1,000,000/= (US$ 14,000) per month. Kenyan MPs are the best paid in the whole of Africa and among the best paid in the world. The tactic they used was to absent themselves whenever debate on the budget was on the order paper. Kenya is classified as one of the poorest countries in the world, with a per capita income of less than US$ 500.

The absenteeism had been going on since the budget was read by the then Finance Minister, Amos Kimunya in June 2008. Indeed, in July 2008 Mr. Kimunya was impeached by parliament over the Grand Regency Saga and it was suspected that one of the catalysts for the impeachment process was the inclusion of this tax proposal in the budget.

Now, the government had until December 31, 2008 to have the budget passed by parliament, otherwise it would have no powers legally to implement any of the tax measures come 1st January, 2009, resulting in an awkward situation where the government has no authority to collect taxes to fund its programs. Of course the MPs were privy to this and hence their behaviour. The acting Finance Minister, John Michuki, had to rescue the situation by agreeing to delete the 'offensive' clauses.

This is in essence a very grave situation. The Kenyan MPs order of business every 5 years after elections, save for 2008, is to allocate themselves all sorts of enhanced allowances over and above their salary, accumulating over time to the figure indicated above. Most of the current MPs were elected in December 2007 on the pledge that they would be willing to have their hefty allowances taxed to contribute to national development, just like every other citizen. This is the reason why Mr. Kimunya was all too willing to include this taxation clause in the budget. The tax allocated from this source was around Ksh 800,000,000 (US$ 11 million).

This action is further evidence that Kenyan MPs are in it for money and wealth and not service to their constituents. They are not willing to sacrifice like everyone else to contribute to the national kitty. As a result of their rejection to be taxed, the government will have to look for alternative sources of funds to minimise the expanding budget deficit. Obviously the people to suffer are the current overbuddened tax payers who will be the first target for more tax, and then the wananchi in general who will have to do with less government funding for projects.

That they are not willing to be taxed like everyone else casts them as insensitive and greedy. It is high time that the MPs rose to the occassion and changed tack on this issue.