Raila Odinga’s Azimio La Umoja One Kenya Coalition and the workers’ union have protested President William Ruto’s administration’s decision to increase taxes, claiming that Kenyans are facing difficult economic times.
Opiyo Wandayi, Minority Leader of the National Assembly, has asked President Ruto to exempt Kenyans from heavy taxation.
“We feel the government needs to remove taxes on books and e-books, taxes on music on Spotify, and taxes on video streaming on Netflix. “These taxes target the most active and, at times, the most vulnerable segments of our population, which are performing artists and students in our colleges and universities,” the Ugunja MP said.
In a press release, Central Organization of Trade Unions (COTU) Secretary-General Francis Atwoli stated that the move to collect intelligence on people’s mobile money usage is ill-advised and will discourage many Kenyans from using mobile money platforms.
“Cotu would like to advise the government of President William Ruto not to hurt Kenyans in their mission to collect enough taxes to not only implement the promises in the Kenya Kwanza manifesto but also make Kenya economically independent of external debt.
“The move by the current government, as outlined in the 2023 Budget Policy Statement, to have access to and or investigate mobile money transactions, M-Pesa, is ill-advised and counterproductive. First, a majority of users of mobile banking are hustlers and the poor who overwhelmingly voted for this government. Second, this move will ultimately make Kenyans avoid using mobile money platforms and as a result, destroy a great innovation that has helped ease the movement of money, especially from the urban to rural areas,” he said.
