Raila Faults Ruto's Plan To Tax Kenyans More

Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga has come out guns blazing against President William Ruto's plan to worsen the lives of Kenyans by introducing more taxes.

Speaking to the media on Thursday, November 3, the Azimio la Umoja leader saw the move as sinister, claiming that the Kenya Kwanza government was planning to use the new policies to fund some of the promises they made during their campaigns.

"We are here to make our position clear on some of the pronouncements the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) regime has made in recent days. We are particularly concerned about the regime's plan to inflict more tax burdens on Kenyans to finance some of the outlandish and unrealistic promises they made," he said in part.

"It remains our position that Kenyans cannot afford and should not be asked to pay extra taxes for the UDA regime to realise their promises."

Raila called upon the current regime to keep aside any thought of raising more taxes on Kenyans and step up revenue collection at collection points instead.

He added that the government must be seen to be fighting corruption, adding that they would resist any of its attempts to use taxes to fund corruption.

"UDA must immediately shelve any thought of raising taxes on suffering Kenyans. Instead, UDA must improve revenue collection at all collection points like airports, customs points, registration, VAT and so on. It must stop the diversion of revenue, and reform institutions like the KRA, NSSF, NHIF and government procurements.

"Deducting more money from workers and throwing it at the corrupt and mismanaged institutions won't solve any problem. Above all, the government must fight and be seen to be fighting corruption. Those measures should be sufficient to raise money to finance the country without raising taxes. We will resist any attempt by the government to unilaterally raise taxes to finance corruption," he said.

Speaking during the annual Taxpayers' month at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) on Friday, October 28, 2022, President Ruto stated that every Kenyan citizen with a National Identification Card (ID) should have a PIN number from the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA).

"There are only 7 million people with KRA pin numbers. In the same economy, a local telco's mobile money platform has 30 million registered customers who transact billions daily. The fact that this opportunity remains unclear to KRA demonstrates why radical changes are necessary.

"Every Kenyan with an ID should have a KRA pin number," he stated at the time.

Raila Comes to Kinoti's Aid

Raila also came to the rescue of former Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI) boss George Kinoti by accusing government officials of targeting Kinoti after Ruto's directive on extra-judicial killings raised eyebrows.

While promising that they would support investigations into the killings, Raila noted that they will not allow Kinoti to be targeted in the process.

"As a party, we believe in the sanctity of the lives of all Kenyans. We are opposed to extrajudicial killings because our supporters have been the victims.

"We are however opposed to the current trend of the president who seems to be pursuing a personal vendetta against past officers. Ruto's grudge against Kinoti goes way before the elections," he stated.

Raila also took a problem with the shift from investigations into the killings to Kinoti's term in office.

Further, he piled pressure on authorities investigating the case of the missing Indian nationals to extend their abilities to cases involving Kenyans who have died over the years in mysterious cases. The Azimio principals called for investigations on the deaths of businessman Jacob Juma, Chris Msando and ICC witnesses.

Raila was responding to Ruto's order to investigate the disappearance of two Indians who were part of his campaign team, including Mohamed Zaid and Zulfiqar Ahmed, who vanished before the August 9 polls.

Nine officers attached to the disbanded Special Service Unit (SSU) have since been arrested, with Kinoti accused of failing to take action against the unit allegedly accused of being responsible for the extra-judicial killings.