By John Cheruiyot.

The move by the MPs to legalize nontaxation of their salaries and emoluments is yet the father and mother of impunity in Kenya.The move made  parliament  a dictatorship and a neocolonial institution.Parliament is yet another black hole in the heart of the nation.The people have no representatives.

They have leaders driven by their own interests.All the MPs were united to make sure their allowances were not taxed.Hence we have a class of Kenyans earning mind boggling allowances without paying taxes and without working for them.

Each MP earns Ksh.30,000 per day and about Ksh.900,000 per month.An MP on a trip a broad earns an allowances of Ksh.40,000.Hence an MP on a foreign trip earns over Ksh.70,000 daily or Ksh.2.1 million per month.Kenya's MPs are among the most paid in the world.They earn more than MPs in developed and trillion dollar economies.If their super salaries would make workers productive and innovative Kenya's parliament would be the most vibrant in the world.

As MPs drive big limousines,live in big houses and ride choppers their constituents wallow in penury.The MPs are a class of gods and deities.They are above the law.They set their salaries at their terms.In the past MPs would grab and sell prime plots.They would grab ADC farms and public forests.When the era of grabbing public resources ceased they shifted to parliament.They awarded themselves huge salaries and emoluments.

During this year's budget Amos Kimunya then the Finance Ministers boldly introduced the taxation of MPs salaries and emoluments.No sooner the minister moved to effect the taxation than he was bashed and impeached in parliament.He was forced to resign.The Cockar Commission set by the president to investigate whether the minisiter errored in the sale of the Grand Regency handed over their report to the president the day parliament revoked or deleted the part of the
bill that was to impose taxation of their emoluments.What a coincidence!

Both the grand opposition and  grand coalition were brought together by their desire to reject any move to tax their emoluments.They unanimously rejected any aspect of taxation.The Nairobi City Council councillors followed the Nyayos of the MPs they recently voted against any taxation of their allowances.They maintained that they will not pay tax as long as MPs enjoy nontaxation regime.

Every local authority will soon follow suit.Hence the over 2,500 councillors and 222 MPs will be the only Kenyans who will not pay taxin the country.The big salaries above taxation will make MPs and councillors throughout the nation a new class and a new society above the law. For local authorities councillors are king makers.The elect mayors andcounty council chairmen.The electorate have no power on who becomes mayor or county council chairperson.During mayoral elections those who win are those who promise more goodies their electors.Hence local authorities are small kingdoms and colonies of councillors.

The MPs are already pushing for parliamentary democracy where by MPs have the power to elect the president.Should the move to shift from presidential to parliamentary system,then the 40 million Kenyans will be defranchised and made spectators and fans of democracy.They will remain at the pheriphery and abide by the dictates of a minority in
parliament.

What is now clear is the fact that the people of Kenya are subordinate to their leaders.They are the servants and the slaves of their leaders.Their leaders will become their masters and their bosses.Kenya's democracy will be defined as the rule of the leaders for the leaders and by the leaders. When this happens parliamentary dictatorship will become the order of the day.

Leaders will use the tools of violence-the police to control and oppress the people.They will make laws that will make the people their slaves and their servants forever.With big money,the MPs will be able to bribe and buy their way to parliament.Their children will go abroad for education and come home to become the technocrats and the leaders as their parents retire.

They will create two Kenyan tribes:the poor and the rich. The MPs are thus not interested in an informed populace.They are not interested in having top class schools in the villages.They will fight to perpetuate the three categories of public high schools in Kenya:district,provincial and national.The district schools for the bulk of the peasantry,the provinical for the middle class and the national for the children of the rich and the leaders.

Kenya then will be what Martha Karua observed in Nandi recently.Martha had observed that when the white settlers who had grabbed African land left in the 1960s they were replaced by black settlers.Hence Kenya is a colony of the black minority over the black majority.Indeed Kenya is slowly drifting into a nation of the oppressor class and the oppressed.

The Kalenjin elite or Kikuyu elite or Luhya and Luo elite are one and the same class.They are the upper priviledged class.They will not fight to improve the wellfare of the poor among their tribes in their regions.They will work to make the poor, poor forever. The rise of Obama in America is good news for Kenyan and African populace.Obama identifies with the majority and will fight for democracy for Africa.

The youth and the educated from the middle and low classes will rise up as did the America populace.They will rise up and over throw the mighty and the rich through the ballot. They did it in Rift Valley when they rejected the moneyed and the wealthy in Keiyo South, Baringo Central and Cherangani constituencies. Should the 10th Parliament work to impose draconian laws making a minority oppress the majority chances are there will be a radical
shift come 2012.

The poor will rise politically against the super rich.Candidates who will champion the interests of the majority will turn tables on the oppressive class.

Comments (2)

Who wants to pay tax?
written by Raymond Bett, December 03, 2008

"We don't pay tax, only little people do" the late Leona Helmsley is most famous for. She was a billionaire who invested in the real estate and later on was convicted by the federal government in the US. Probably if she had been in Kenya her statement would have been what is in our Honourable MPs lips. They pay tax in accordance with the law as explained by the Speaker which is on their basic salary of Ksh. 200,000 and the huge allowances in excess of Ksh. 600,000 remain untaxed. And most of them are not sufficiently philanthropic or that charitable enough to contribute to the national Kitty.

Or as Henry Kosgei said, he would not want to pay tax to some centralized government that he does not know. Never mind that the honourable is a minister in that centralized government. But he is right in one aspect; no one wants to pay tax. Who would want to pay tax to some bureaucratic system that promises new roads and whose only sign is the bringing down of houses apparently built on road reserves? Who would want to pay tax when commodity prices keep skyrocketing by the hour and the ministers keep blaming a cartel of their own creation? Or promising swift action in the media about rising energy prices but remaining ineffective practically?

Very few would want to pay taxes but before they are afforded with the decision on whether to be taxed or not, their employers would have dutifully remitted the taxes on their behalf. In addition the grocery store will have already included the VAT component in commodity prices before they are given that decision. If KRA's motto of "Kulipa Ushuru ni kujitegemea" is to be effective then the pharisaicals honourables at the August House would have to lead the way. Trouble is they won’t but time has come and nothing can stop an idea whose time has come.

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PAY TAXES ACCORDING TO LAW!
written by K K Ngeno, December 07, 2008

Ask yourself why you pay TAX!It is because it is law.That remains a fact.
So if our MPs do not pay taxes it is because they are not subject of that law
and I beg to be corrected on that premise.So why do we fool ourselves?
How many super rich do you know who do not pay taxes?They are many,e.g.drug peddlers,owners of oil wells and oil cartels,owners of mobile phones companies and religious organisations and of course the same MPs who own big businesses.
This business of not wanting to pay taxes is so sweet and well rewarding.It is inherent among human beings not to punish themselves when the need arise.
In this country,it is common knowledge that all the Tax Regimes are punitive.Start with our
Local Authorities up to the Central Government,before one starts a business you have to pay upfront whether the business succeeds or fails.
Tax man knows his role in a police state,I mean brush the wrong side of the Executive for example being in the wrong political party and you will be reminded that you have not paid tax.
The middle and the lower class in this country,if lucky to be in employment you pay taxes through checkoff and take your child to a private school,private hospital and be prepared to operate on shoe string budget and pay for your housing mortgage.
Why should an MP pay taxes?

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