Nominated MP John Mbadi has slammed President William Ruto’s administration over the planned increase in taxes.
Speaking on Citizen TV’s Daybreak on Thursday, Mbadi said despite knowing that the country’s economy is in shambles, President Ruto continued to appoint excess public officials resulting in a bloated budget.
“What Ruto’s government wants to do is to take money from people’s pockets and give to the government to finance extravagance and I call it extravagance because who forced William Ruto with this state of economy to employ 50 CASs,” he said.
Mbadi added that President Ruto had more than doubled the number of public officials appointed during Uhuru Kenyatta’s reign, with consequences for taxpayers.
“The question I would want to ask Ruto is who are you targeting because you seem to be hurting everybody. We would be happy if he would be hurting the rich and the poor are smiling,” he said.
This comes amid a weeks-long outrage among Kenyans as the discussion over the Finance Bill 2023 gathers steam.
In order to boost revenue, the VAT on petroleum products was raised from 8% to 16% on Monday and will remain in place until June 14, 2023.
Another problematic issue is the proposed 3% deduction from civil officials’ salaries to cover housing costs.
According to President Ruto, the initiative intends to assist Kenyans to own homes while simultaneously creating job possibilities for Kenyan youth.
Simultaneously, beginning in July, Kenyans would contribute 2.7% of their incomes to the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF).
